Ace Attorney: Time Paradox
by WhiteDraga
Summary: You would think that with all that had happened throughout Phoenix's life, things couldn't get any crazier. So when Phoenix—along with everyone else's—past versions of themselves from different periods across time start falling out of portals and pulled out of Trucy's Magic Panties, you can bet that hilarity and drama is bound to ensue. (fluff (if you squint) & time travel!)
1. Turnabout New Year's Troubles Came Early

**A/N:** Hey there internet users! **Happy April Fools you foolishly foolish fooly foolhardy fooling foolish fools!** This is my first published story on FanFiction, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I've even published this story correctly(I swear the Doc Manager is trying to prank me...) Anyway, while I was a mere reader, I was disappointed that there are not many stories where past characters meets future characters, or characters from this alternate world meets characters from that alternate world, so I've decided to make some myself. So! I started this one when I was vacationing in Cuba without wi-fi and my 3DS to keep me company during New Years. It takes place after Dual Destinies(which I haven't played but know what most of the gist is about), and because I haven't played it yet(and I don't really want too many spoilers) there might be some mistakes that I won't be aware of. That's where **YOU GUYS** come in! All you need to do is inform me of what I did wrong, and I'll try to fix it(there is an edit the story button somewhere, right?) I probably will have to edit some parts after I've actually played Dual Destinies, but for now, enjoy this work-in-progress chapter!

Tell me if I've got anyone OOC! And as a fellow Ace Attorney fan, I encourage you other fans to tell me if I got something wrong!

 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing belonging to Ace Attorney and I do not own this cover picture! Like I mentioned, I am only a fan. If I did own Ace Attorney, then I would create a character named Screamin' Payne to add to the Winston Payne and Gaspen Payne family. (the family of wincing, gasping, and screaming in pain. Get it? lol)

* * *

"Talking"

' _Thinking_ '

'Quoting'

 **OBJECTION!**

* _ **sound effects**_ *

( _Extra info_ )

{ _scene change_ }

 _Text_ /TEXT= Emphasis

* * *

 **Chapter No. 1**

Turnabout New Year's Troubles that Arrived Way Too Early for Anyone's Tastes

…

 _Date:_ December 31, 2027

 _Time:_ 11:59 PM

 _Location:_ Wright Anything Agency

{ _everyone's Point of View_ }

"3, 2, 1—HAPPY NEW YEAR!" A ginormous cheer emitted from the second floor of the only lit building in the quiet neighborhood precisely at midnight. Mr. Eldoon tossed around in his not-too-shabby bed and grumbled about how noisy the Wright Anything Agency was being, but he couldn't stop a smile from gracing his face as he fell asleep again.

Glasses containing various kinds of alcohol ranging from common 6-pack beers to ridiculously expensive imported wine clinked together eagerly while gleeful laughter sounded out in gratitude to another year spent with friends and families.

Everyone was there: Edgeworth, Maya, Trucy, Apollo, Athena, Larry, Iris, Bikini, Gumshoe, Maggey, Klavier, Ema, Blackquill, Juniper, Pearls, Will, Adrian, Lotta, Oldbag, Penny, the DeLites, and even Franziska—who begrudgingly agreed after giving into Edgeworth's persistent coaxing—was there. Phoenix smiled warmly at all his family, friends, acquaintances, and past clients who gathered around his previously messy office chatting away. He, Apollo, and Athena worked their butts off to clean the darn thing that entire day before setting up the New Year's party for their soon-to-arrive guests, and in the end they're proud of their hard work.

"A toast, to a new, prosperous year!" He announced loudly. Many cheers followed as everyone began clinking and banging their glasses with each others again before downing their remaining liquor heartily. The guests soon resumed back to their chatter.

* * *

{ _by one unnoticed part of the wall_ }

"Hey Junie! How's the party going for ya?"

( _Athena_ )

"O-oh hi Thena. It's going really great, I-I'm getting less shy around people now, a-and I jump less and less when someone approaches me."

( _Juniper_ )

"That's great Junie! Keep at it!"

"Thanks, Thena! By the way, how are you and Mr. P-Prosecutor Blackquill doing? I-I hope you guys feel b-better from...you know..."

"Oh yes! We're both doing great! Don't worry about us, Junie, 'cause I'm a professional in psychology after all. Although I'm not sure how Apollo is doing since he's been so awfully quiet...well, he still shows up to work—which I suppose is a good sign—but lately there's always that oppressive look in his eyes. To tell you the truth, I'm really worried about him, Junie. He may seem like he's simply mourning, but I KNOW that look in his eyes holds something much more painful. Even Widget sensed it while he was in sleep mode! I've already offered my psychiatric services to him—completely free of charge, too!—but he just would not accept them!"

"Oh goodness, I really h-hope my mighty guardian Apollo will be alright. I w-would be so sad too if I lost you Thena—"

( _sudden grip on her shoulder_ )

"Heeey babe! Name's Larry, the worldwide awesome-est artist! You're a cute chick, what's your relationship status?"

( _semi-drunk_ )

"Eep! I-I-I-I-I—"

( _meltdown initiate_ )

"Uhh Junie? You okay?"

* * *

{ _with the fanboy and fangirl_ }

"Say Mr. Edgeworth, do you have a moment?"

( _Penny_ )

"Hmm? What is it Ms—"

( _Edgeworth_ )

"It's Penny. Penny is fine."

"Alright then, Miss Penny, what can I do for you?"

"You know those super ultra rare limited edition Neo Platinum ranked Steel Samurai deluxe collector's packs that exists only 17 copies in the entire world?"

"Yes? Go on."

( _secretly extremely interested_ )

"Well, I've got my hands on a card right here that belongs to one of those packs, but I already have a copy of it. I was wondering if you would like to make a trade with me for that card."

( _heard from Larry during their onetime date about Edgeworth's fanboy side_ )

"It depends on what card it is, for I also have a few that I am willing to make an exchange..."

* * *

{ _with the supernatural, the magical, and the scientific_ }

"No way! So you're like the master of all mediums who can channel dead people?"

( _Trucy_ )

"In a sense, yep!"

( _Maya_ )

"Wow that's so cool!"

"Channeling the dead? That's highly unscientific."

( _Ema_ )

"Haha! That's what everyone says, but when they actually see it, they get totally blown away!"

( _Maya_ )

"There is no solid, decisive evidence pointing towards the existence of the spirit beyond the living realm or the visible light spectrum. That's why I don't quite believe you, Miss Maya. Science has undoubtedly proven to society that we are made from trillions of very complex cells held together by chemical forces. No more, no less. Even if we do have a very intricate mind, I'm pretty sure no ghost is living in my brain cells right now."

"Well, I guess someone needs a visit to Kurain Village—"

"Pass."

"But Ema, you should at least check it out! Kurain Village's surroundings are very beautiful and refreshing! It would still be nice to take a trip to the mountains once in awhile, don't you think?"

"Hmm, well I suppose. I'll think about it." * _ **munch**_ * * _ **munch**_ * * _ **munch**_ * ( _eating random bag of Snackoos that popped out of nowhere_ )

"Oooooh, can I have some—"

"No."

"..."

( _tearful puppy-eyes look_ )

"...oh alright, fine. I'll share, so stop looking at me like I just kicked something cute."

"YAAAY!"

"Hm, I'm a bit hungry too. I'll see if I have any leftover snacks..."

( _Trucy_ )

"Um Trucy? Is that what I think it is...?"

( _Ema_ )

"Oh these? They're my Magic Panties!"

"Magic Panties?"

( _Maya_ )

"I really think you shouldn't wave that thing around, Trucy."

( _Ema_ )

"Why not? It's only a prop that I use on my shows, nothing more."

( _Trucy_ )

"But...that thing's an undergarment..."

"Nope, it's not ONLY an undergarment! Here I'll show you...aha! Chips!"

"Oooooh I'll hold on to that!"

( _Maya_ )

"Thanks Miss Maya! And now popcorn!"

( _Trucy_ )

"I'll hold onto that as well!"

"Soda!"

"Hmm, I am thirsty. Hand it over!"

"Burgers!"

"* _ **drools**_ * Wow Trucy, your panties are amazing! It spits out food!"

"And highly curious. It is physically impossible for such small area space to contain more than its volume. Trucy, give me those! They need to be scientifically tested whether they are truly undergarments or not!"

( _snatches the panties_ )

"Wha—wait! Ms. Skye I need those!"

* * *

{ _with the oldest and the youngest_ }

"* _ **sigh**_ * Just look at that sexy hunk-a-junk my Edgy-poo has grown into. He's the image of perfection!"

( _Oldbag, admiring Edgeworth from behind a couch_ )

"Who is, Miss?"

( _Pearl_ )

"What? You don't know? It's my Edgy-poo right over there! Isn't he handsome? Of course he is, and brats like you will never understand!"

"A brat? Ma'am, I'm 16, I'm considered a teenager, not a child anymore."

"Oh a big mouth, eh? Youngsters like you ought to know how to respect their elders properly, humph! Fine then missy, what do you want me to call you?"

"My name is Pearl Fey. What's yours?"

"Why bother? I'm just a sweet, old lady forgotten by the world. * _ **sigh**_ *"

"You're not forgotten, that's why I'm asking for your name."

"Heh. Look at me, Wendy Oldbag, having friendly talk with a whippersnapper. Never in all my years would I imagine me getting friendly with the likes of you."

"So um Ms. Oldbag, is Mr. Edgeworth your special someone?"

( _still as oblivious as ever_ )

"Of course he is! Why is he not?! He is mine and mine alone, but that stallion is a wild one, I never did manage to truly tame that hot horse. My elders say that a free horse runs free and can never be tamed, but what do they know? They're dead."

"Don't lose hope, Ms. Oldbag! Sometimes special someones just need a push in the right direction to realize their love for each other. Trust me, I know two people who are hopelessly in love, but are completely unaware if it. * _ **sighs**_ *"

"You know what, you're right! I just need to double—no—quadruple my efforts in seducing Edgy-poo! Whippersnapper, why haven't I met you before? You are actually quite nice to have around, unlike some people that I know of."

( _from there on out, Pearls and Oldbag formed an alliance of sorts with each other because Oldbag refused to acknowledge having a friendship with a whippersnapper_ )

Somewhere in the room, Edgeworth had a foreboding chill run down his back.

Somewhere in the room, Phoenix and Maya sneezed simultaneously, twice.

* * *

{ _with the glimmerous and the annoyed_ }

"Achtung Herr Forehead, what are you doing hiding in that corner like Herr Blackquill, ja?"

( _Klavier, literally appears out of nowhere_ )

"Prosecutor Gavin go away, you'll attract attention."

( _Apollo, trying to huddle closer to the corner away from Klavier_ )

"Aw, don't be a party-pooper Herr Forehead. Let me in on this little private club of yours, ja?"

"Prosecutor Gavin, I'm serious."

"Me too, Herr Forehead."

"Ugh, fine you can join me..."

"So...how have you been?"

( _finally speaks after a few silent moments_ )

"What do you mean?"

"Your wounds, are they feeling better?"

"I guess they're healing nicely more or less, but the doctor says that I should keep my bandages on for awhile longer, just in case. I'm just glad that the whole crazy fiasco from that week and a half ago is over."

"I'm talking about your heart, Herr Forehead. Are you okay emotionally?"

"...I'm-I'm fine...I mean, really, I'm fine. Truly, I'm fine."

"Oh? You sure?"

"Ugh! Yes! For the love of—yes! I told you _I'm FINE_! Jeez, everyone's been asking me that same question, and it's starting to get annoying. I keep telling you guys that I'm fine— _I'M FINE_! Just leave me alone to mourn in peace, and I'll get over it...eventually...also to be honest, this party's festive atmosphere is doing wonders to keep me from brooding, so I'll be...fine...* _ **mumbles**_ *I guess."

( _a long pause before Klavier finally smiles_ )

"Ach, that's good. I'm glad you can still enjoy our company, ja? I was worried about you pushing others away and start distancing yourself from us. I do hope you understand how much each one of us—including me—cares about you, Apollo."

"..!"

( _completely taken aback along with the mention of his actual name_ )

"..."

( _a rare serious face stare_ )

"...th-thanks for the, um, concern."

"No problem, Herr Justice."

( _sudden relieved face, soft smile_ )

"..."

( _flustered_ )

"...you know, we both have witnessed each other in shambles now, ja? If I didn't know better, I think fate has purposely tied us together."

"God that sounds so cheesy, Klavier."

"Ach! Indeed, ja? Only you, Herr Forehead, can make me say cheesy things to another man. Tell me, what do you actually think of me? Don't worry, I won't judge, ja?" * _ **wink**_ * * _ **wink**_ *

( _delighted to hear his own name from Apollo_ )

"You just ruined the moment, Prosecutor Gavin."

* * *

{ _with the whipper and the samurai_ }

"Hmph."

( _Franziska with an icy stare, silently analyzing the taller prosecutor_ )

"Hn."

( _Blackquill with an equally scary glare, silently eyeing up and down the German prosecutor_ )

* _ **SCLANG!**_ *

( _suddenly the collision of whip and blade rang out in the office room; thus scaring, startling, and catching the attention of the other occupants. The frozen positions of Franziska's whip wrapped around Blackquill's sword lasted for a few tense moments with said weapon owners glaring at each other in a silent battle of intimidation. Immediately after exactly 3 minutes, they simultaneously broke their weapons' hold and turned to walk away from each other._

 _Those who have witnessed this exchange testified it to be the scariest moment of their lives_ )

* * *

{ _with the background characters_ }

"Hey Miss Adrian..."

( _Will Powers_ )

"What is it Mr. Powers?"

( _Adrian Andrews_ )

"N-nothing, it's just...fascinating, really."

"What is?"

"Seeing Mr. Wright and his friends come this far, it's amazing, don't you think? It's as if like yesterday when Mr. Wright was just a rookie defence attorney who singlehandedly saved me from jail."

"Yes, I do agree with you. If it weren't for Mr. Wright, we all would have been wrongly sentenced, and the true criminal would have escaped justice once again. For that, I am eternally grateful to him."

"Ah I agree with ya'll!"

( _Lotta_ )

"Who are you?"

( _Adrian_ )

"Name's Lotta Hart, an' I'ma plain ol' photographer. Pleased ta' meet'cha!"

"Yes, the pleasure is all mine. I am Adrian Andrews, Mr. Will Power's agent."

"H-hi."

( _Will_ )

"Anywho, I heard ya'll talkin' 'bout our ol' spiky blue, yeah? I jus' couldn't resist connecting with ya'll about how he change lots'a lives. He sure change mine, plenty o' times!"

( _currently now a historic documentary photographer_ )

"Yes, indeed he has change all of us here."

( _Adrian_ )

"Y-yeah. I don't know about you guys, but whenever I look at Mr. Wright and his friends, I feel oddly like a parent watching my children growing up and heading to a brighter future, you know? * _ **sniff**_ * I-I know, it's really weird that I feel this way, huh? * _ **sniff**_ *"

( _Will_ )

"Naw, it's not weird! I almost feel the same darn thing! Now if only we could go back to th' past and properly thank 'im for everything."

( _Lotta_ )

"Yes, it'd be nice to see our past selves and tell them about everything. However, it is entirely impossible."

( _Adrian_ )

"Yea', right you are Ms. Andrews."

"Hm... * _ **sniff**_ *"

( _Will Powers, suddenly has a sinking feeling_ )

* * *

{ _minutes later_ }

"Hey pal!" Hiccuped one drunk, but nonetheless very jolly Dick Gumshoe. "Thanks for inviting us, pal! It's nice to spend a New Year's Eve surrounded by so many people!"

Maggey, who was pleasantly conversing with the DeLites about marriage and honeymoon stories by the piano, perked up at Gumshoe's loud voice. She excused herself and hurried over to steady her beloved soon-to-be( _still not married but planning to_ ) husband.

"Oh don't mind him, Mr. Wright sir!" She flashed him a friendly smile. "He just has too much to drink. I'm guessing this is our cue to leave before my big-hearted Jumbo Wumbo breaks something. Thank you again for inviting us, sir. Goodnight and happy New Year's!"

"Happy New Year's to you guys too. See ya!" Phoenix chuckled at the adorable scene the two clumsy trouble-magnets are making as they stumbled out the door.

"Hey Mr. Wright!"

Turning around, Phoenix was approached by two smiling temple Feys.

"Oh hey Bikini, Iris, is there something you two needed?"

"Nah, nothing's the problem! We just need to start heading back to the temple. The Hazakura Temple is temporary on break due to New Year's, but next morning we're back in business! The last train to Eagle Mountain leaves soon, so we gotta dash!"

( _Bikini_ )

"Ah I see, have a safe trip alright?"

Iris suddenly closed in on Phoenix. Wrapping her arms shyly around Phoenix's shoulders, she embraced him warmly. Phoenix blinked a bit in shock before returning the tender gesture. The hug ended as soon as it happened.

"Happy New Year's, Mr. Wright." She said softly with a sweet smile.

"You too Iris." Phoenix nodded with his own gentle smile, and waved them off as they opened the office door.

After that, guests began to leave in hopes of catching a few Zs( _sleep_ ) before the morning sun dawns upon the brand new world. Adrian and Will left for their agency apartments in hopes of resting for a couple of hours before starting their busy routine. Maya and Pearls immediately dashed out the office the moment they checked the early morning train schedule, apparently having forgotten that the last train to Kurain leaves in less than 15 minutes. Oldbag disappeared off to somewhere after aborting her search for Edgeworth who was hiding in a cupboard( _"Edgeworth? What are you doing in my cupboard?")_. Lotta left with Penny to her apartment, hoping to sleep on Penny's couch for a bit before leaving for the airport to the countryside. The DeLites zoomed off on their motorcycle( _much to the terror of one Ron DeLite_ ) to their home. Larry offered to escort Juniper home after all the stress he—eventually—realized that he has caused her, and needless to say the timid girl was grateful for the extra company through the dark, cold streets. Ema and Klavier left for their apartments soon after. And lastly, Franziska began her own trip back to her hotel room shortly after exchanging a few more fondly chilly words with Edgeworth.

However, the remaining few—Apollo, Athena, Blackquill, and Edgeworth—managed to get convinced by Phoenix and Trucy to stay for the remainder of the night.

Much to the bewilderment of them all, the Wright Anything Agency was actually much, much bigger than any of them had originally thought.

Pyjamas in the form of big, plain t-shirts and comfortable sweatpants were distributed to the tired guests for the night. Somehow, Phoenix found a pair of a certain chief prosecutor's favorite( _pink_ ) silken pajamas stuffed under his pile of t-shirts for who-knows-how-long much to the chagrin of one now completely magenta-faced Miles Edgeworth, and a befuddled Phoenix soon became the unwilling target for said prosecutor's death glares.

"What the hell, Wright?!" Exclaimed Edgeworth, whose face was still a lovely shade of his usual suit.

"I honestly don't know why a pair of your pajamas was in my closet, Edgeworth! I'm serious!" Phoenix replied, his cheeks and ears having turned slightly red in embarrassment.

"Well I certainly have no recollection of possibly putting a pair of my sleepwear in YOUR wardrobe!"

"Still, don't glare at me like I'm guilty of doing so! It could've sprouted legs and walked here for all we know! Calm down would you?"

" **HOLD IT!** 'Sprouted legs and walk here'—pah! That's absolutely preposterous! Are you even listening to yourself?!"

Athena, Apollo, and Trucy simply tilted their heads in bewilderment at the astonishing discovery. Meanwhile, Blackquill was just looking tired as hell.

Poor Blackquill had finally finished all the long and treacherous paperwork for his release, and returned to being a legalized prosecutor...only to find that the second he arrived in his new office, the Prosecution Department decided to dump multiple stacks of paper twice the height of Blackquill himself for him to inspect, correct, and complete. They all claimed that with him officially being an attorney-at-law again, he should start doing his own paperwork and check over previously completed ones since the department had been doing it for him over the past years while he was in jail. So with a good couple of years worth of endless cases to scan over—and oftentimes to be rewritten—Blackquill actually began to miss his time in jail. If Taka the hawk was Taka the parrot, he would have no problems testifying how the paperwork literally submerged his master once, and how it's making his master look more dead than alive with each passing day.

All Blackquill wants to do is sleep, and his hawkish companion agrees.

* * *

{ _3 hours later, Trucy's Point of View_ }

* _ **yaaaaawn**_ *

Letting out a big, lazy yawn, Trucy continued her journey down the stairs to quench her midnight—or is it early morning now?—thirst.

* _ **...groan**_ *

Trucy paused mid-step. ' _Did I just hear a soft groan?_ '

Looking around the dark room serving as a 'semi-kitchen' that was connected to the main office( _in reality was the front entrance to the office_ ), she shrugged after confirming that it was probably something from upstairs. Opening the mini-fridge, Trucy dug around the many identical bottles of grape juice in search of the lonely milk carton. Pouring herself a generous amount, she then put the milk away and closed the fridge door. Due to the ridiculous amount of grape juice bottles and the small space they are occupying, the bottles made a noisy jingle as the fridge door slammed shut.

Suddenly, shuffling was heard coming from the agency's office. Trucy froze again.

' _Okay, I'm pretty sure this time I didn't imagine that._ ' Gulping silently, Trucy slowly inched towards the office space, glass of milk clutched tightly in her hand.

Gingerly peeking her head around the entryway, Trucy barely suppressed a gasp at seeing outlines of foreign shapes shifting on the darkened office floor emitting soft groans. Wetting her lips nervously, Trucy contemplated whether or not to sneak upstairs to warn everyone, or confront the figures right now.

Looking around some more, Trucy notice that the office door was still locked and nothing seems to be broken into, so thinking the best logically possible answer, Trucy eventually figured that it might be a bunch of cats that sneaked in the agency in search of shelter.

' _It has happened before, after all. Daddy probably forgot to close a window again or something._ ' Nodding to herself, Trucy worked up the courage to tiptoe into the office to the nearest light switch to confirm her theory.

' _It'd be bad if I woke everyone up for a few stray cat shadows. They need their sleep after all that partying._ ' Trucy thought with a silly smile as her hand enclosed on the switch. With a twitch of her fingers the office lit up like a lightning strike, and so did her expression.

In front of her was a group of strangers consisting of an adult and three children. Here. In the agency. At night. Moaning on the floor. Not supposed to be here.

' _Oh, and did I mention that there's strangers who SHOULDN'T be in here at this time of the night!?_ ' Poor Trucy narrated mentally as she stood in place feeling shocked to the core.

"D-daddy...?" She spoke up loudly after a moment, finally having found her voice again. This drew the awareness of the dazed people who were all starting to get up from the floor.

"Daddy?!" Backing up slowly, Trucy shouted nervously in hopes of getting attention from the sleeping occupants upstairs. Now bearing the full attention of the entire group of strangers, Trucy's eyes widened even more as full panic settled in the pit of her stomach like a bomb. Accidentally dropping her glass of milk, Trucy finally turned around and dashed up the stairs in a panicked frenzy.

"DAD!"

* * *

{ _Edgeworth's Point of View_ }

"DAD!"

I jolted awake at that; curse those nightmares to damnation.

I sighed. ' _It's been what? Now officially more than 10 years has it? Yet those undesirable nightmares still refuse to leave me be._ ' I began rubbing my temples in hopes of calming my quickened heart rate. ' _Truthfully they are almost nonexistent, but on quiet nights like these they remind me of their horrid presence—wait wasn't that Trucy screaming just now?_ '

Snapping my eyes open, I forcefully flung myself onto my feet and rushed to the door. Briskly opening the door, I was met with a flushed Trucy frantically banging on the door to her father's room.

"DAD! WAKE UP! DAD!"

"Trucy, what on earth is going on?" I asked feeling concerned and somewhat irritable.

"U-uncle Edgeworth! There's people downstairs!" She exclaimed while waving her arms up and down as she pointed to said direction.

' _Intruders?!_ ' I thought in alarm.

"Trucy, calm yourself. Are they armed?" I questioned cautiously.

She gulped before answering. "N-no, I don't think so..."

"Hmm, I see."

' _I suppose it's not an assault then. Unless it's a poorly planned robbery._ ' Tapping my arm, I debated whether or not to immediately investigate and engage the matter downstairs.

"Wha's goin' on?" The door next over from my room opened up to reveal that girl from the recent momentous trial—Ms. Cykes, was it?—and Prosecutor Blackquill; the former rubbing her eyes drowsily and the latter quietly standing by her side with his eyes closed. The door to the final guest room at the end of the hallway opened up, and the loudest person I've ever met stumbled across in his ongoing bandaged state to join us—although he still appears to be half-conscious—in this confusion.

Wright finally emerged from his quarters, scratching the back of his head in that familiarly endearing, yet unique fashion of his that he does in court.

"Hey Truce, 'sup?" He asked, speech slightly slurred from most likely having just woken up.

"Daddy! There's strangers in the office!" That got everyone to flinch awake.

"Wh-what?" Stuttered the currently messy haired attorney who usually has two locks of hair spiked up. I believe he was the witness on that certain trial who caused the most horrified expression I've ever seen since the Matt Engarde case to form on Wright's face. "Didn't all the guests leave?"

"Yeah, but I don't remember inviting them—I don't think I even met them before!"

"Are they still downstairs?" Prosecutor Blackquill grunted, returning from within his and Miss Cykes' shared room with that inquiring sword of his. If I didn't know better, I'd guessed he was a Steel Samurai fan as well.

"I-I think so." Trucy answered with her hands held close to her chest, clearly indicating that she is quite startled.

"Then let's not keep them waiting." Taking charge, Wright stalked confidently down the stairs with every intent of protecting us all if danger is probable. It's curious how mature of a man he has grown into from that sniffling child I defended back then.

' _Now is not the appropriate time to be reminiscing about the past, Miles!_ ' I frowned as I mentally scolded myself. Using a generous amount of my willpower to push away the unnecessary feelings that sprouted up in my chest, I hurried after Wright with the others in pursuit.

When we reached to the bottom of the narrow steps, Wright stopped abruptly and gasped; thus causing me to nearly collide with his clothed back. I let out a interesting little sound in irked protest before squeezing past Wright's shoulders to get a better view of the situation.

I nearly believed that I was still in bed dreaming a nightmare.

* * *

{ _Phoenix's Point of View_ }

' _This is impossible...no way...it couldn't be!_ '

Beside me I could hear Edgeworth let out what was best described as a mixture of a squeak and a whimper. Honestly, I don't blame the guy for being shocked. I would have been utterly paralyzed myself if my DECEASED FATHER POPPED UP ALIVE AT 3:40 IN THE MORNING!

' _How the hell is this even possible?!_ ' I thought incredulously. ' _Isn't Edgeworth's father supposed to be dead like, a long LONG time ago?!_ '

Lo and behold; the real Mr. Edgeworth, in all his brown-trench-coat-and-grey-fedora glory, stood by my ridiculously shunned office desk looking as stunned as we were. Upon further observation, Mr. Edgeworth seems to be staring at Edgeworth in particular—

' _Shoot! Edgeworth!_ ' I turned towards the petrified chief prosecutor. ' _Aw, the poor guy must be having a heart attack by now!_ '

A few more moments of uncomfortable silence later, I decided to finally take the initiative and find out just what in the world is going on.

' _Okay, sound strong Phoenix._ '

"Ahem," I cleared my partly dried throat, "who are you, what are you doing here, and how did you get in?"

The Mr. Edgeworth look-a-like snapped out of his trance by blinking once, twice, before focusing his hard, yet kind gaze on me.

"Ah, yes. I do apologize for this unexpected intrusion, sir. My name is Gregory Edgeworth( _at this, I began sweating_ ), and to be honest, I don't have the slightest idea how I've gotten into your office this late at night." He paused as if in thought, before continuing. "Although, I do remember going to retrieve my son from school, but the rest to how I got here is an unfortunate blur."

Edgeworth did a sharp intake beside me, seemingly forgotten how to breath at the moment.

' _If he keeps that up, then he's gonna faint soon._ ' I thought before something struck me as weird. ' _Wait, didn't Trucy say there was '_ people _', as in, plural form of person?_ ' Narrowing my eyes suspiciously, I spoke my mind.

"My daughter informed me there were more people in this room. Where are they?"

"Ah yes, they're over here. Come out and introduce yourselves, boys." The possible Mr. Edgeworth clone angled his body a bit and gestured with his hand to someone. A reluctant mop of scarily familiar brownish-grey hair poked itself out from behind my lonely desk followed by a pair of equally familiar set of intelligent grey eyes twinkling in childish wonder.

' _If I was drinking grape juice right now, it would probably be spewed out of my mouth because this is just unbelievable._ ' I thought slightly hunched over, eyes wide, and perspiring a little as a miniature version of Edgeworth— _Miles_ Edgeworth—appeared from behind my desk looking uncertain and—dare I say it—genuinely scared. Everyone behind me gasped; the Edgeworth beside me looked ready to pass out.

Almost immediately, a head of black, spiked hair( _I am now officially a little scared myself_ ) poked out right after the smaller version of Edgeworth came up beside Mr. Edgeworth. More gasps followed—especially a loud one from me—as what was best described as a child replica of me trailed behind mini-Edgeworth and hid behind him while the smaller Miles Edgeworth look-a-like latched onto Mr. Edgeworth look-a-like's coat sleeve.

Then as I somehow expected would happen, another small problem came in the form of one tiny Larry Butz who quickly dashed to Mr. Edgeworth's pant leg and peeked out at us warily, but honestly, the only one that I'm really focused on is the miniature version of me; the nervous little Phoenix Wright that is hiding from the world behind his best friend's back.

A long, awkward silence settled upon the room with us and the paradoxes/possible clones(?) staring at each other. For a moment there, I wanted to look up at the universe and ask 'why me?'.

' _Ah geez! First saving Edgeworth from himself, then finding out that he wasn't dead, then knowing the truth about Iris, then Labyrinthia, then disbarment, then all that crazy drama from the Phantom trial, and now this?! I just can't seem to catch a break, can I?_ '

* * *

 **Save data file?**

Yes

No

...

 **Yes**

Progress saved.

* * *

 **Evidence: Phoenix's Stuff**

 **Attorney Badge**

:It's my attorney badge that proves my profession as a defence lawyer. It feels dang good to be back enforcing the law!

 **Magatama**

:A jade stone received from Pearl Fey all those years ago. I'm surprised I didn't lose it yet. It can reveal a person's secrets.

* * *

 **Profile: Phoenix's Log**

 **Phoenix Wright**

:Well, that's me! I'm a dashing looking man if I don't say so myself. I hate to admit it, but I'm getting old. The last time I did a profile self-check I was still 24, but now I'm 35. * _ **cries**_ *

 **Miles Edgeworth**

:My longtime rival and 'best friend'. He's a stingy one to be honest, but when you're in a pinch, he's the best one to have on your side. The local residing chief prosecutor; his new glasses adds to his professionalism. He's also 35, like me.

 **Apollo Justice**

:My first employee( _excluding Maya_ ); previously worked for the Gavin Law Offices. He gave me an interesting first impression and a hell of a punch to the face. He's a pretty decent person though, and I've come to like him. Recently have been through some tragic times, and I'm genuinely worried for him.

 **Athena Cykes**

:A new addition to the office. She's upbeat and motivated, like a certain spirit medium I know. Majored in psychology, and knows multiple languages. She was one of the crucial points involved in the last trial, but I'm sure she's faring much better than Apollo.

 **Simon Blackquill**

:I honestly don't know much about him, but I do know that he carries a sword, owns a pet hawk, and can break any shackles placed on him. As scary as that sounds, luckily I've somehow managed to earn his respect. He's very fond of Athena.

 **Trucy Wright**

:This is my beloved daughter, Trucy. She's a great magician who used to work at the Wonder Bar awhile ago, but now I'm making her focus more on school. Needless to say, her grades are 'magical'. She's fun, energetic, smart, polite, sociable, kind, and everything a father could wish for.

 **Gregory Edgeworth(?)**

:Is it really...? Just who is this man standing in the middle of my office? Why does the children with him give me such a strange feeling?


	2. Turnabout Edgeworth Just Fainted

**A/N:** Last update before school starts again for me. I haven't played Ace Attorney: Investigations 2 yet, so I'm not sure if Gregory Edgeworth has a Court Record with him while he's investigating. Also heads up, I haven't played Miles Edgeworth Investigations yet, but I will soon. **Please bare with me and tell me if I got something wrong, ja?**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Ace Attorney! If I did, then I would've already created an Ace Attorney game where you could play as Franziska!

* * *

"Talking"

' _Thinking_ '

'Quoting'

 **OBJECTION!**

* ** _sound effects_** *

( _Extra info_ )

{ _scene change_ }

 _Text_ /TEXT= Emphasis

" **tAlkiNg liKe ThiS** "= voices from another time that the character(s) is(are) hearing

* * *

 **Chapter No. 2**

Turnabout Oh Look Edgeworth Just Fainted but the Situation Isn't Getting Better

...

 _Date:_ January 1, 2028

 _Time:_ 3:43 AM

 _Location:_ Wright Anything Agency

{ _everyone's Point of View_ }

Only one thought ran through everyone's minds: ' _what the hell is going on?!_ '

However, for the accidental time travellers, it was: ' _what just happened?_ '

* * *

{ _Gregory's Point of View, 30 minutes ago_ }

' _Today is a good day._ ' I thought to myself. ' _Pleasant weather, a free cup of soothing tea, and now an early dismissal from work. I get to personally pick up my son from school today—oh he would be so thrilled to see me._ ' I smiled at the thought of the beaming grin Miles will give me when I see him. ' _Yes, today is a good day indeed._ '

As I strolled leisurely along the pathway from the Edgeworth Law Offices to the local elementary school( _still in my trench coat + fedora because I'm feeling rather impatient to see my son_ ), I couldn't help but think back to what transpired a week ago in court.

' _Manfred Von Karma..._ ' I narrowed my eyes a bit, my previous smile instantly dropping into a concerned frown. ' _The legendary prosecutor with an unbeatable winning streak. Every single one of his records—whether his courtroom penalty file or dental health history—are clear-cut PERFECT. There is virtually no mistake this man has made in his entire life._ ' I sighed through my nose. ' _Even so without any recorded mistakes, anyone can tell that he has some serious problems._ ' I cringed slightly at the mental image of his detesting sneer, and those cruel, judgemental remarks. ' _I honestly don't know if I've offended him at some point or if he just naturally hates my guts, but that man definitely has some sort of problem. During our first encounter, he may as well have punched me in the face._ '

I walked pass a vendor selling those Samurai hotdogs Miles loves to eat. Maybe I should buy one for him on the way back.

' _The trial of Jeffrey Master has been ongoing for almost a year now, and I suspect that Von Karma is definitely hiding something crucial from the court. That man is fearsome indeed; with him as the prosecution, no defense attorney dares to accept the same case, but of course I agreed to accept Mr. Master's case because nobody deserves to be left completely defenseless like that._ '

I snapped out of my thoughts as Miles's elementary school's bell tower came into view. The large, golden bell soon began to ring out the slow, familiar melody for class dismissal, and the school gates slowly opened.

The corners of my mouth lifted slightly at the faintly audible cheers coming from within the school building. Very soon a stampede of screaming children burst out of the front door charging straight for the gates while crying out in glee at the sweet taste of freedom. I had to quickly sidestep out of the way in order to avoid getting ran over.

I navigated myself through the clusters of parents who also came to retrieve their children, and eventually spotted Miles and his two friends walking out of the school. The scene of Miles laughing with his friends, Phoenix and Larry, caused a small smile to form on my face once more.

Miles has always been a quiet boy who had difficulty getting along with most children of his age. His lack of friends made me a bit worried for his happiness outside of home, but ever since he defended his classmate Phoenix, he now has a good, loyal friend constantly following him around. Larry soon joined their twosome party a little later. I feel relieved knowing that Miles finally has friends that he could socialize with.

The smile on my face expanded as Miles caught sight of me, and had begun running towards me with an excited grin on his face; his friends close behind.

"Father! You're here!"

I was about to respond when suddenly a vacuum like sensation struck my chest.

I could not breath.

I felt my eyes widen as I watched Miles's grin contort into an expression of fear. He grasped his chest, trying to heave but failing. I noticed the same thing was happening to Phoenix and Larry. I began to get worried, but before I could do anything the whole world literally blacked out; darkness surrounded us everywhere.

We were floating in an abyss.

Terrified little Phoenix wriggled around to latch onto Miles's arm with a startled Larry already hugging his legs.

At the helpless, scared faces of the three children, my fatherly instinct urged me to reach out to them. I stretched out my arm as far as I could for Miles to grasp. He succeeded in clutching my hand, and I proceeded to pull them closer toward me.

A sudden loud noise similar to a gunshot rang out across the darkness, and soon it was followed by the void rumbling viciously; thus successfully terrorizing the three children to tears.

I wrapped my arms around all of them, trying to comfort the trembling figures that clung onto me and each other.

" **GeT aWAy frOm My faThEr!** "

Miles snapped his head up in shock along with Phoenix and Larry who stared at him in surprise. I was astonished beyond words.

' _That was unmistakably Miles's voice, albeit it sounded quite distorted and far away, but it's still his voice. However,_ ' I thought, ' _based on his surprised expression, I'm fairly certain he wasn't the one who spoke those words just now._ '

The shaking got stronger until it turned into a violent quake; jostling us around in the darkness. I held onto them even tighter through the forceful quivers.

After what felt like an hour has passed, everything stilled. With the quickened rhythm of my heart beat evident in my ears, I hesitantly lifted my head to glance around the unchanging darkness that continued to engulf us.

' _Is that it? Is this—_ '

Before I could even finish that thought, gravity suddenly returns and we began falling through the void.

The three children in my arms started screaming, and the next thing I knew, I was on a floor groaning. I wasn't hurting anywhere( _surprisingly_ ), but I did feel a tad nauseous after the weightless sensations experienced earlier.

Still able to hear the audible fast tempo of my heart rate, I shifted around, trying to feel my way to my son, Phoenix, and Larry who were moaning softly near me. I grasped a small hand, unsure who's it is, but nevertheless gripped it reassuringly. The owner of the tiny hand responded by whimpering a little and squeezing back.

Immediately after, blinding white light flooded my vision making me clench my eyes tightly. A gasp sounded from somewhere as I forced my eyes to adjust to the sudden change. It took longer than expected at first, but I managed to finally distinguish the form of a teenage girl frozen by the doorway.

My eyes widened as I took in the new, unfamiliar area. ' _What? Where are we?_ ' I got up on slightly shaky legs and looked down to see Phoenix struggling to pull himself up with me. With his hand still clutched in mine, I helped him to his feet, and then surveyed around for Larry and my son.

"D-daddy...?"

I turned my head to look at the petrified young girl. I could almost picture how bad we looked right now; four strangers standing in someone's residence completely uninvited in the middle of the ni—when did it turn dark outside?

"Daddy?!"

I focused my attention back to the brunette girl who is slightly shaking in what's most likely consternation. Before I could stop her, the girl dropped something as she turned around shouting "DAD!", while dashing up the stairs in a hurry. Immediately after her retreat, I assessed our situation to in conclusion find it quickly turning sour. I turned towards the boys who were glancing around in confusion at our new surroundings.

"Umm Miles's dad?" Larry spoke up meekly. "Where are we?"

"Yeah...how did we get from the school to, uh, here?" Phoenix added as he poked at what seems to be a plate of plastic pasta with an airborne fork; which caused Miles to instantly reprimand him.

"Phoenix don't touch that, it's not yours."

"O-oh, sorry."

I cleared my throat to get their attention. "Okay boys, I'm sure we all have many questions as to what and how we got here, but right now we are in deep trouble for being in someone's home this late at night—"

"—woah it's night time?!"

"Shush Larry! Let my father finish!"

I tried again. "Yes, it is night time; which would make it even easier for the people in this dwelling to mistaken us for thieves or intruders. I'm sure things will be alright after I talk and explain to them that we mean no harm, but for now you three need to hide in case the adults here aren't very reasonable." I ended with a firm tone to express how serious our current predicament is. The three nodded in understanding before quickly trying to find a place to hide. In the end they decided to hide behind the office desk as sounds of approaching footsteps gradually became louder.

I mentally prepared myself for a tense encounter as a man in a blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants emerged from the stairway looking protective and wary. However, the moment he laid his eyes on me he instantly stopped dead in his tracks and gasped. This made me a bit muddled before another man close to my age wearing pink( _..? I probably shouldn't judge_ ) sleepwear slipped past the first man's shoulders. When I caught a good look at his face I could feel my breath escape me.

The man looked very...resembling to me, actually. There is a strange sensation within my chest that's telling me I should know who he is, but I at the same time I don't. Why does he feel so...familiar?

* * *

{ _present time, Miles Edgeworth's Point of View_ }

' _I, my, I, but, my, father, impossible, shot, DEAD, elevator, earthquake, gun, but, nightmare, scream, is dead, alive?, was dead, Von Karma—_ '

( _on second thought, let's go to little Miles_ )

* * *

{ _little Miles's Point of View_ }

Little Miles, his father, and his friends stood separated by broken glass and spilt milk from the shocked residents.

The thing that made little Miles curious was the two men who arrived first—not that the bandaged up man or the sword wielding man didn't peak his interest—because once the two men saw his father, they looked like they've literally seen a ghost.

( _and little Miles will soon know why_ )

The man in blue had big, kind eyes( _albeit it held maturity just like that of any adult, but still reminded him of his friend's own innocent eyes_ ), and black, impossibly spiked hair that looked just like Phoenix's—

' _A relative of Phoenix's maybe?_ '

—and the man in pink had a face that was similar to his father's, but with hair that was uniquely his!

This man couldn't be the uncle that Miles lacked, could he?

...no, it couldn't be…

... _could he_?

Upon the gentle nudge he received from his father, he remembered why they came out of hiding.

"Um, good evening." He started off bashfully. "My name is Miles Edgeworth...it's nice to meet you and sorry for intruding..."

Once finished, he twisted an arm around him and pulled at Phoenix's blue hoodie to urge him to go next. He gingerly stepped out, still grasping the back of Miles's grey suit. Miles winced internally at the thought of wrinkles forming from Phoenix's harsh grip. ' _Ugh, it's gonna be a pain to smooth those creases out._ '

"H-hi. I'm Phoenix."

Larry went next. "And I'm Larr—"

* ** _thump!_** *

The man in pink suddenly collapsed, successfully startling everyone.

"Hey!" Larry huffed. "I wasn't even done yet!"

Miles shot him an annoyed stare and turned back to see the man who looked a lot like Phoenix trying to pat the unconscious man awake. The rest of the group was gawking at them uncomfortably.

After a moment of awkward silence( _with the exception of soft tapping from the spiky haired man's attempt of waking the fainted man_ ), the man in the blue shirt stood up and hesitantly replied. "Ummm...well then...uh, nice to meet you all, um—", he began before getting rudely interrupted by an obnoxious voice, "—it's Larry! My name's Larry!"

Scratching the back of his head, he began again, "alright then, uh, Larry...okay, this is...you guys have no idea how weird this is for me…" He took a quick glance behind him. "...and for us."

Father spoke up next. "I understand, sir. I truly apologize for this inconvenience, and I would be very grateful if you trust my word and know that we mean no harm."

"No no, I do trust you. It's just," he paused, "I can't believe this is actually happening."

"That's understandable, sir. Anyone would be shocked if unknown guests suddenly showed up uninvited in their home this late at night."

"No no, it's not that. It's..." The man seems to hesitate even more as he struggled to finish his sentence.

"...I don't really...believe that you are real."

"I beg your pardon?"

* * *

{ _Phoenix's Point of View_ }

Edgeworth's father—um, what's his name? Uh, I think it was...oh right, Gregory—lifted an eyebrow at my words.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well...it's..." I sighed, mentally debating if I should just come out straight and say it to these doppelgängers.

' _But...are they really doppelgängers though? If it only was this supposed_ 'Gregory Edgeworth', _I could've logically passed him up as someone's idea of a cruel joke in disguising themselves as a deceased father. However, as a father myself, I can easily tell that the eyes of the children with him are not lying about their identities; which brings me to the unrealistic conclusion of maybe they actually are ourselves from the past..._ '

I groaned. ' _Oh man, it's too early in the morning for this._ '

"Look," I finally said, "this may come as a shock to you, but please bare with me and know that I have no reason to lie to you." I took in a deep breath. "What year is it?"

Mr. Edgeworth blinked in surprise at the unexpected question.

Mini-Larry hummed in amusement. "That's easy! It's 2001! And it's almost Christmas!"

Silence reigned once again as I sighed at the predicted, yet still surreal answer. ' _So...before DL-6 then?_ '

"Hate to burst your bubble, but check that little calendar on my desk over there. Look for the year at the top."

Mini-Larry tilted his head at my unusual request before dashing to my office desk. He leaned backwards on his heels and gasped, "whoa! Where'd you get a 2027 calendar?!"

"A what?!"

Kid Miles and kid me instantly joined kid Larry to examine the calendar. Meanwhile, Mr. Gregory's expression went from slightly dazed to grave at the revelation.

"What?! It's true! A 2027 calendar! Wow Mister, how'd you get that?"

( _Little Phoenix_ )

"Hey Miles! Where'd ya think we could get one of these for ourselves?"

( _Little Larry_ )

"Why this is curious indeed! I'm pretty sure it's illegal to print out calendars that's more than two decades in the future!"

( _Little Miles_ )

The three boys glanced back at me. "Hey mister," kid Larry began, "did you break a law getting this? It's cool that you have one, but I think it ain't worth breaking a law to get it."

"Yeah! You could go to jail for that!" Kid me added while kid Miles started to look at me with a wary glint in his eyes.

I held my hands up innocently, "no no, I didn't break any laws, I swear," and then pointed my finger at the calendar. "I got that legally."

At this, Mr. Gregory spoke up. "So what you're saying is...that we've somehow ended up 26 years in the future?"

"More or less, yeah." I nodded earnestly.

He stared at me intensely for awhile, nobody dared to move or break the thick atmosphere between us. It was so quiet that I could almost hear the milk seeping through the corners of the doorframe and mentally cringed at the thought of moldy, stinky wood that will result from the milk not getting cleaned up soon.

After some time later, Mr. Gregory finally sighed. "Alright, I believe your claim."

I blinked. ' _He does? Just like that? Seriously? I was thinking it'll take a bit more evidence to convince him since I'm not even sure if I've convinced myself that this is really happening._ '

As if sensing my surprise, he began elaborating. "I believe you. Quite frankly I'm amazed that I do, but as someone of my profession, I am experienced at determining whether or not I am being lied to. I sense nothing but the truth when I look in your eyes; thus I believe you."

I nodded numbly before replying a "thank you."

The awkward silence returned as we stared at each other. It was hesitantly broken when kid Larry asked, "umm, so what day is it?"

Unexpectedly, Trucy broke out of her speechless trance and answered, "oh! Well actually, we just had our New Year's Eve party three hours ago!"

"So..." Kid Larry tilted his head again, looking confused for a second as he tried to register what Trucy said. "If New Year's Eve was three hours ago...and it was December 22nd when we were back at school..." Suddenly he perked up and snapped his fingers as realization dawned upon him. "Aw man! We missed Christmas!"

Little Miles just groaned at his friend's stupidity.

* * *

 **Save data file?**

Yes

No

...

 **Yes**

Progress saved.

* * *

 **Evidence: Gregory's Case**

 **Attorney Badge**

:This is my standard attorney badge that shows others my profession. It is well worn and well taken care of throughout my years as a lawyer.

 **Business Card**

:A card I made for advertising the Edgeworth Law Offices. I do hope that Shields lad will take care of the office in my sudden absence.

* * *

 **Profile: Gregory's Analysis**

 **Gregory Edgeworth**

:I am a veteran defense attorney, and the proud father of a brilliant son. I am 35 years of age. I own a law firm, and I have a talented and smart son named Miles. I have a 'fan' named Raymond Shields...and I guess I'm not very good at telling others about myself.

 **Miles Edgeworth**

:This is my beloved son Miles. He loves me as much as I love him. He idolizes me and aspires to become a great defense attorney when he grows up. He has a hobby of reading my law books, but I'm perfectly fine with that.

 **Raymond Shields**

:My faithful assistant. He is very jumpy, and very affectionate towards me and Jeffery Master. He has an odd habit of his that makes him eat paper on his notepad. Despite his quirks, I can sense a deep passion for truth within him.

 **Phoenix Wright**

:This is my son's first and best friend. Miles defended him of theft a few months ago; thus forging their close friendship. He seems to be the shy type at first, but once you offer him a plate of chocolate chip cookies and milk, he gets very energetic and very talkative, very fast.

 **Larry Butz**

:This one is a...peculiar fellow. I'm not sure how to describe him, but I have a feeling that he will make Miles's life very interesting.

 **Manfred Von Karma**

:He is a cold-hearted man with an even colder glare. A mean perfect record with a meaner personality. As a defense attorney, I should be working alongside with him, a prosecutor; not clash against him like mortal enemies. He is a stubborn perfectionist who is hard to reason with. If he were to take in an apprentice, I would feel bad for whoever became his pupil.


	3. Turnabout Edgeworth Bonding Time: Take 1

**A/N:** Hey guys! First of all, **I'd like to thank all you viewers for reviewing, and the followers for following, and the rest who favorited my story! I promise to make this a good read for you all!** It makes me extremely happy that there are people who read this and enjoyed it thus far; makes me feel glad to be of service! Here comes the next one!

 **To** _**jckgwk**_ and everyone else who feared that I became inactive due to not having updated in awhile, don't worry! Like what I said in my profile page, I'm a rather casual writer, so I only write for fun to pass the time(if I get any, that is). I am busy most of the time because of school, the latest video game, or the **NEW ACE ATTORNEY ANIME** and whatnot, but mark my words, **I will never give this story up.**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own anything of Ace Attorney except my games, my ideas, and my right to be a fan. If I did own Ace Attorney, I would've already made plans to create a real life Widget!

As always, don't ever hesitate to correct me if I got something wrong! I hope my grammar isn't too awkward since English is not my first language.

* * *

"Talking"

' _Thinking_ '

'Quoting'

 **OBJECTION!**

* ** _sound effects_** *

( _Extra info_ )

{ _scene change_ }

 _Text/_ TEXT = Emphasis

" **tAlkiNg liKe ThiS** "= voices from another time that the character(s) is(are) hearing

* * *

 **Chapter No. 3**

Turnabout Welcome to the Future Slash Edgeworth Bonding Time Take One

...

 _Date:_ January 1, 2028

 _Time:_ 4:15 AM

 _Location:_ Wright Anything Agency (upstairs apartment)

{ _everyone's Point of View_ }

After cleaning up the spilt milk and broken glass shards, Phoenix invited the time travellers to the agency's apartment upstairs. He then decided that with this unexpected arrival, he wouldn't be able to fall asleep anymore regardless of his three mere hours of unconsciousness. With the help of Apollo and Blackquill, Edgeworth( _the fainted one_ ) was carried back to his room.

Ignoring Trucy and Athena's boisterous whines at how unfair it was that they can't also stay up to talk, Phoenix's persistent argument of 'happy-sleepy time is good for your health' managed to get them to return to their beds grumbling and pouting all the way there.

Apollo isn't exactly sure how to deal with this kind of situation, so he decides to keep quiet and return to his quarters. Meanwhile, a sleep deprived Blackquill couldn't agree more to the idea of rest.

Currently only Phoenix, Gregory, and the fourth graders sat around in unconscious Edgeworth's ample spaced guest room. Phoenix perched himself on the bed that Edgeworth occupied in while Gregory rested in a desk chair, and the three elementary boys made themselves comfortable on the slightly carpeted floor.

* * *

{ _Phoenix's Point of View_ }

"You seem to know so much about our current predicament." Mr. Gregory slowly sipped his tea that Trucy expertly brewed for him. "In an instant you knew that we were not from this time, but from a time of the past. Why is that?"

Before Phoenix could respond, a sudden realization occurred in Mr. Gregory's eyes. "Oh, forgive me for my lack of manners. I've forgotten to ask for your name, good sir."

Phoenix smiled reassuringly. "No it's alright. I'm the one who forgot to introduce myself." Taking in a deep breath, he continued. "My name is Phoenix Wright." This caused a few gasps to erupt from the three children in the room.

"What?! B-but _I'm_ Phoenix Wright!" Little Phoenix blurted.

"Yes, we both are Phoenix Wright." Phoenix nodded before turning back to the elder Edgeworth. "Do you see now? This is why I know that you guys aren't from this time."

Mr. Gregory nodded.

Little Phoenix stared at his adult-self in awe. "Is this how I'll look when I grow up? I look awesome..."

"Heh," Phoenix scratched the back of his head, smiling nervously, "thanks, I guess."

' _It feels kinda weird to be admired by your kid-self..._ ' He thought, slightly embarrassed, ' _but it doesn't feel quite that bad either._ '

"I still can't believe we missed Christmas..." Larry mumbled as he crossed his arms with a huff.

Little Miles gave him a look. "Larry, we've somehow ended up more than 20 years in the future, and all you can think about are presents?"

"But this year I was really looking forward to my new dirt bike that Santa promised me! Also, think about it: more than 20 years in the future means we missed more than 20 Christmases! That's like, more than 20 dirt bikes!" He replied indignantly as he continued to pout.

If Phoenix looked closely, he could see the small twitching spasm that little Miles's eyebrow was having as he groaned in irritation and defeat.

' _Yep, Larry hasn't changed a bit._ ' He thought in amusement.

"So," Phoenix began, "how did you guys end up in my office at this unholy hour in the morning?"

Mr. Gregory shook his head. "I truly do not know. I did not lie when I said that I was about to retrieve my son from school. This may sound absurd, but when I was about to greet my son and his friends, we were then suddenly transported to some sort of dark void."

"Yeah yeah! Then there was this super loud noise that sounded like when the teacher dropped the classroom hamster's cage!" Larry butted in, having forgotten his earlier gloom.

"I'm pretty sure it was the sound of a gunshot, actually." Little Miles corrected.

"Woah really? That's what a gun sounds like?" Larry exclaimed incredulously, staring wide-eyed at his grey haired friend.

"Pretty much." Little Miles nodded solemnly.

"And then weird shaking started and it was really _really_ scary..." Little Phoenix added with a shiver.

"But then Miles's voice came out of nowhere! I didn't even see him move his mouth, but I heard it! It was so sick, dude!" Larry then scrunched up his face in thought. "And a bit freaky too."

"The voice wasn't very clear though," little Miles confessed, "it sounded like it was spoken underwater or something."

"Then finally the shaking stopped, but then we started falling! That was even worse than the shaking!" Little Phoenix exclaimed, biting his lip as he recalled the horrible experience of freefalling.

"Interestingly, we didn't break anything from that fall." Little Miles( _which Phoenix hereby deems as just Miles_ ) stated matter-of-factly.

"And tah-dah! We're here in the future!" Larry jumped up and flung out his arms as if he was about to do a cartwheel.

Phoenix blinked, slightly overwhelmed by the quick recap the three children made.

Mr. Gregory chuckled. "Now now boys, let's not baffle our host too much."

Phoenix regained his composure and laughed sheepishly. "Gee, that's some story you got there."

Miles sighed. "Tell me about it. I'm pretty sure that I still don't quite believe it myself..."

"Me too!" Little Phoenix chirped. "Also, that voice we heard said something kinda weird."

"Oh? What did it say?" Phoenix asked, curiously tilting his head a bit.

"It said 'get away from my father'."

For some unknown reason, Phoenix couldn't shake off this strange feeling that started creeping around in his gut. He doesn't have a clue what those words meant, but at the same time he feels that he does. He glanced at Mr. Gregory with a perplexed expression as if asking, 'so all of that really happened and now you guys are miraculously in the future?'

Mr. Gregory nodded.

"Um," Miles spoke up tentatively, "you said that the room downstairs was your office, erm, Mr. Wr-Wright...sir." He stuttered momentarily, obviously feeling awkward calling the man by his best friend's surname. "What do you do as a job? By the looks of that toy roo—er, I mean—your so-called 'office', I honestly cannot tell if you are a circus performer, a magician...or a music loving executioner."

At this, Phoenix couldn't help but chuckle. ' _Ahh yes, he probably got stumped when he saw the guillotine on the piano. Well, I guess my office is still kinda messy even after we cleaned it. I suppose it's because no matter how hard we tried, Trucy and I just couldn't let go of her various magic props; they hold too many fond memories, after all._ '

"Nope, I'm neither of those things. I know it may not seem like it, but believe it or not, I'm a lawyer." He casually answered.

Miles did a double take. "Really?! _You_? You're a _lawyer_?!"

Phoenix nodded joyfully, "yep! I'm a defense attorney to be exact."

Miles's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. "A-are you serious?!" He then settled his gaze on little Phoenix in disbelief. Phoenix, _the_ crybaby Phoenix—the most timid little boy in his entire class; the weeping mess he defended not even three months ago—became a defense attorney just like his father.

Miles briefly wondered if he was actually unconscious and dreaming somewhere.

"Oh really? I don't believe you." Larry said skeptically. "You have anything to prove that you're a big-shot lawyer?"

This time, Phoenix couldn't help but laugh. He reached into his sweatpants pocket to retrieve his newly reacquired badge with a huge grin, and held it up to let it gleam proudly in the lamplight for all to see.

"Huh? What's that tiny thing?" Larry asked, raising an eyebrow. Meanwhile, Miles gasped upon recognizing the distinctive pin.

"That is an attorney badge." Mr. Gregory answered as he took out his own badge and presented it. "It is a defense attorney's proof of their profession. This shows everyone that they are lawyers."

Larry flinched in shock. "Wait! Then big Nick really is a lawyer?!"

Phoenix nodded again, lips curling upwards and mentally raising an eyebrow at his new nickname. "I sure am!"

Little Phoenix by now was glimmering( _seriously, there are literally tiny sparkles floating around his head, and they aren't disappearing no matter how hard you rub your eyes_ ). He gazed at adult-Phoenix in complete admiration. "Wow..."

Mr. Gregory hummed in mild interest as he pocketed his own beloved badge away. "How curious. What made you consider to go into law, Mr. Wright?"

Phoenix put a hand on the back of his neck and smiled nervously. "Well, um, there's a lot of factors that made me consider law as a career..." He hesitated for a moment, pondering if it was wise to tell them about DL-6.

' _If I do tell them, will they remember when they—assuming that they could—get back to their own time? If they did, will they try and stop it? I bet everything will be drastically changed if they did prevent that incident from happening, but would I still be a defense attorney? Would I have met all of my friends, my clients—would I still have met Trucy?_ '

Phoenix came to the conclusion that for the time being, it is best not to reveal all the details of DL-6 to them. Even if he doesn't fill them in about DL-6 right now, it would undoubtedly come up sooner or later once they learn that the present Edgeworth is a Chief Prosecutor.

( _poor Edgeworth, his past just won't leave him alone, eh?_ )

' _In other words, I need to play it safe by telling them the half-truth._ ' He thought before snapping back to reality.

"I guess my main reason for becoming an attorney was from getting inspired by my friends...by you guys." Phoenix ended softly as he gestured towards Miles and Larry. The two blinked in surprise.

"Us? Why us?" Miles asked incredulously. "What did I do?"

"Yeah, why me?" Larry asked, looking equally puzzled. "Was it because of that box of Oreos I shared with you at lunch that one time, or...?"

"No, no, that's not it." Phoenix shook his head before pressing on. "Remember the class trial?"

"The trial?" Miles and Larry sounded out simultaneously, an identical amount of confusion plastered on their faces.

"It may not seem like much to you two at the time, but it sure was for me." Phoenix turned towards his younger self. "Right?"

Little Phoenix nodded cheerfully. "Yeah! Right!" He then faced the two boys that he has come to consider as his best friends in the whole world. "Wh-when there was that class trial with me being accused of stealing your lunch money, Miles, I felt very sad..." A look of loneliness crossed little Phoenix's face as he thought back to the images of pointing fingers, and the loud, merciless chanting. "Everyone said I did it, and that I should be punished—b-but I didn't take anyone's money! I didn't do it! No one believed me...except for you guys. When you two stood up for me, it really made me happy that someone was on my side! It made me realize I wasn't all alone and by myself anymore! I'll always remember what you guys have done for me. Thank you." Little Phoenix smiled gratefully at his two friends, eyes shining in pure gratitude.

Larry grinned back. "Hey no problem, buddy! The entire class was ticking me off when everybody started bullying you like that, so I just did what felt right."

Miles cleared his throat. "Yes, I've already stated that it is not a big deal as it is my duty to defend innocent people." He said with an adamant passion blazing in his light-grey eyes.

Phoenix perked up at the sight of little Miles's shining, determined eyes. ' _That look...! It's been so long since I've seen it again. I've...kinda missed it._ ' He thought sadly.

At that moment, the adult Edgeworth on the bed groaned and started to stir, effectively cutting anyone off from saying anything else, and causing the group to focus their attention on him.

* * *

{ _Edgeworth's Point of View_ }

' _What an unusual nightmare I had. I dreamt my father was alive, but this time we weren't in an elevator and there were no gun shots. No, this time we were at Wright's office and...something to do with Von Karma? How very odd..._ '

I awoke to a bleary vision. Attempting to clear them, I began massaging my eyelids tenderly with my palm as I shifted to a more comfortable upright position.

Upon blinking a few times, Wright's form came into view. He smiled at me gently in greeting before another movement caught my eye.

...

I had to rub my eyes again to ensure that I wasn't hallucinating as I stared rather dumbly at a miniature version of Wright's face that appeared in front of Wright.

After 10 more seconds of staring, the small Wright-clone spoke in a tone of childish wonder. "You really do look a lot like Miles."

That certainly brought me out of my trancelike state.

I narrowed my eyes at Wright—the bigger Wright—in silent confusion. He caught my unvoiced question: ' _what is going on here, Wright?!_ '

"Ahem. Hey...Edgeworth," he started off hesitantly, and I immediately knew that I would not like my answer. "I'm glad you're finally awake. So, I guess I'll introduce you to our...guests." He began motioning towards each of the...( _here, Edgeworth's logical mind momentarily buffered at the paradoxical sight_ )...anomalies as he 'introduced' them. "This is Phoenix...which is child me, that's Larry—well, child Larry, and this is, uh, yourself...as a child." He paused slightly before continuing on. "And lastly, this is, um, your—erm—this is Gregory Edgeworth."

...

I haven't a clue how long the man that Wright suggested as my father and I had been staring at each other, but I eventually found the will to look away and gave Wright a glare. "Wright..." I muttered through clenched teeth. "Is this..."

He nodded his head in confirmation, looking dead serious. "Yes Edgeworth, this is real. You're not dreaming; this isn't a joke; it's insane, but it's real."

I closed my eyes as I exhaled a breath that I unconsciously held in. ' _Bloody hell, so that wasn't a nightmare after all._ '

Another pregnant pause went by before a courteous voice sounded out.

"Ex-excuse me, sir..."

I reopened my eyes and focused them on the boy whose existence tempts me to shout **OBJECTION!** to indicate that I was listening.

He continued, "are you...perhaps me from this time?"

I'm...unsure as to how I should answer. I've certainly been through bizarre situations before, but this one 'takes the cake' as Wright would say.

I took in a deep breath as I resisted the urge to twitch. "Why yes, I presume so. You are named Miles Edgeworth, are you not?"

The young boy nodded politely. "Yes, I am."

"Then that is correct: I am you of this time as I, too, am named Miles Edgeworth." For now, my brain has given up on trying to logically make sense of the current circumstances. ' _I surmise that I shall temporary adopt Wright's 'go with the flow' tactic that works oh so well for him during court to deal with this queer situation._ ' I thought, mentally agreeing to my plan.

"So you really are Miles? You look so...cool." The miniature Wright-clone—no, the child form of Wright—spoke with an utter look of adoration in his brilliant orbs causing me to have a sudden strong desire to protect this boy's sweet innocence for the rest of my life. I almost smiled if it weren't for a certain annoyance.

"So you're future Miles? Haaaah! You look so old!"

' _Ugh. No matter big or small, Larry will forever be as objectionable as ever._ ' I thought, inwardly sighing in irritation.

"...son?"

I nearly flinched at the loving, familiar voice that I hadn't heard in decades.

"Son, please look at me. I want to see you better."

I gingerly reopened my eyes that I wasn't aware I closed. Slowly, I lifted my gaze to lock onto those hard, yet caring grey orbs once more. The longer I looked into those paternal pools, the stronger the nostalgic warmth that flooded my chest grew, causing me to instinctively realize that this man was truly my deceased father, Gregory Edgeworth.

' _Yes, this is indeed beyond the regular bizarre that I normally handle._ '

I gulped quietly. "F...father..." The word felt extremely foreign on my tongue, yet in a way it soothed my heart.

A smile finally graced his lips. "My, look how much you've grown, Miles! I see you've become a fine man."

I reached to grasp my elbow, suddenly feeling very flustered. "Thank you for the complement, father."

Another silence fell upon us, but this time it was fairly comfortable. I felt the tension gradually drain out of me as I became more and more confident in meeting my father's gaze. Each time I glanced over at him, he gave me a warmhearted smile; thus involuntarily making something within my chest to swell and flutter with an unfathomable emotion that I had not felt in years.

"Hmmm." The annoyance hummed, successfully breaking the tranquility. "By the way, just how old are you two? I bet Edgey is way older than big Nick! Hahaha!"

I could feel my brow twitching slightly at the dreaded nickname that I am still occasionally called by.

My younger self grunted at him in irritation. "Larry! Phoenix and I are in the same grade—we're the same age for crying out loud! Besides, you already know we are 26 years in the future, so just add 9 and 26 together and you'll figure it out."

"But I don't like maaaaaath." Larry whined. "It's too much woooork!"

"It's only addition, Larry."

"It's still math!"

Wright chuckled softly before he spoke, "to answer your question, both me and Edgeworth are 35."

"I see, so you two are the same age as me..." Father stated absentmindedly, his wise brown eyes glazed over with a soft fondness.

"Huh?" Child Wright tilted his head, looking quite confused. "Why do you call Miles by his last name? ...are you two still friends?" He added hesitantly.

Wright looked over at me expectantly. I attempted to clear my suddenly dry throat. "Well, I suppose we are...more than simply acquaintances."

"Aw c'mon Edgy! Just say that we are!" I chose to ignore his outburst of that accursed nickname. Subconsciously lifting my hands, I shrugged and shook my head at him with a sly smirk.

"Ah, but isn't beyond acquaintanceship what most would assume as friendship?"

This caused him to roll his eyes at me. "Fine fine, have it your way." He turned his attention back to the pairs of curious eyes awaiting his answer. "I call him by his last name because it is more professional for me to do so."

The three boys tilted their heads in unison. "Professional?"

"Yeah, we're sort of like coworkers."

My younger self gasped. "So that means I'm a defense attorney in this time, right?!" I flinched a bit at the glistening hope shining in his eyes.

"W-well..." Wright nervously sounded out.

"Did I start my own law firm?! Or did I help maintain father's—wait! Or did I take over the Edgeworth and Co. Law Firm?! Tell me tell me!" I winced a little and looked away from the beaming enthusiasm my younger self is displaying.

This time Wright's voice jumped an octave higher. "W-w-well..." His eyes darted to mine pleading for help. "Umm...n-not exactly, right Edgeworth?"

I glanced at the excited expression that my younger self is sporting, and nearly grimaced again at the thought of the smile fading away from his face the moment his dreams are crushed.

I sighed. "Wright, you have such an inquisitive ability on constantly digging up my painful past."

"Hey!" He cried out indignantly. "What did I do? This time it's not even my fault Edgeworth!"

"Hmph! Yeah _Wright_." I chuckled dryly at my terrible pun. Wright gave me a deadpanned look.

My younger self quizzically raised an eyebrow between us. "Um, so _did_ I become a defense attorney?"

Once again Wright and I looked at each other, and we began a silent debate.

He raised an eyebrow. (" _Sooo...are we gonna tell him?"_ )

I narrowed my eyes. (" _And crush his hopes and dreams? My my, aren't you sadistic."_ )

He gave me an unamused stare. (" _Oh? Then what do you propose we do, your Frilly-ness?"_ )

I glared at him from the corner of my eyes. (" _I have enough sense to guess that you just called me_ 'your Frilly-ness' _, Wright, and I prefer you not to refer me to that heinous name ever again."_ )

He rolled his eyes. (" _Okay okay, let's just get back to the topic at hand."_ )

I lifted my head slightly. (" _Yes, let's. Now what do you propose we do?"_ )

He motioned towards the visitors from the past—whom by now are watching us in complete astonishment—and shrugged his shoulders. (" _Well, they'll know everything eventually, right? Why not tell them now?"_ )

I snorted. (" _Don't be such a foolish fool, Wright. What if they get transported back to their own time in the next hour after we tell them? What if they remember what we told them, Wright? Do you realize they could change the timeline and cause certain things to occur differently?"_ )

He crossed his arms and gave me an annoyed look. (" _Okay, first of all don't call me a foolish fool. I've already got a prosecutor who does that and I don't need another. I don't call you_ 'your Frilly-ness' _and you don't call me foolish fool, got it?"_ )

I shook my head halfheartedly with a small smirk. (" _Fine, I supposed we can arrange that."_ )

He heaved a sigh before gazing at me seriously. (" _Anyway, I already thought of what could happen if we told them, Edgeworth, but I still think we should go with it."_ )

I stared at him blankly before finally nodding. (" _...alright then. Take your best shot."_ )

We both simultaneously turned around to face the slightly baffled guests who merely stared at us throughout the entire silent exchange in bewilderment.

"...well?" My younger self urged on impatiently. "Did I or didn't I?"

Wright cleared his throat before bluntly answering, "no. You did not."

"What?!" He exclaimed, shock enveloping his whole being. "Why not?!"

Wright grinned anxiously at me. (" _Your turn~."_ )

I gave him an empty stare(" _Really Wright? REALLY?"_ ) before turning back to my younger self and replied, "it is because in a few years, you'll...lose sight of what's important."

He was silent for a moment as he hastily tried to calm himself down. Furrowing his eyebrows, he responded in a soft whisper. "I-I see...um...may I ask how?"

I breathed in deeply to steady myself. "Well...one day father had an...accident that struck me—er, you—exceptionally hard. Of course as we know, father is a considerate man, so in his will he left you with a large enough sum of money to continue pursuing law. However, without father's guidance you were easily led astray—especially during the first two years after the...accident and father's...passing." It took a substantial amount of willpower for me to prevent my voice from quivering as I spoke.

My younger self now looked horrified and heartbroken. "You mean...f-father is gone?"

I closed my eyes and nodded dreadfully. "Regrettably so."

He looked as if he wanted to cry—which I'm tempted to do so if we continue to remain on this topic because unfortunately, it gets exceedingly difficult to control your feelings when your deceased father is literally sitting five feet away from you; alive and breathing and directing a concerned expression at you.

My younger self grasped father's hand and whimpered, "f-father..." Father, of course, immediately embraced him, and began stroking his head in a comforting way.

"Shh...it's alright son, I'm still here...no matter what happens, I'll always love you." My heart throbbed violently enough to make me touch my chest in an attempt to calm it. I gripped the silky material of my sleepwear, desperately wishing for those words to be meant for me.

( _well, I suppose it technically is meant for me but...you know what I mean_ )

Everyone else stayed quiet during this time. Even Larry refused to supply an obnoxious comment.

After a few more moments, they tentatively separated. Father gave an encouraging smile, and my younger self smiled back while drying his eyes. Child Wright bounded up to him and grinned. "It's okay Miles! You won't get lost because I'll just make sure you don't get lost! But if you do get lost...then I'll just pull you towards the right way!"

I do confess, that is exactly what Wright did for me.

"...thanks." My younger self gave him a small, grateful smile.

"Hey! Don't forget about me!" Larry slung himself across my younger self's shoulders in a fashion that reminds me of a monkey leaping to claw one's face off. Pausing a second to regain his balance, my younger self glared at the sudden intrusion of his personal space before sighing and resignedly nodding his head; grudgingly accepting his fate.

Wright laughed lightly. "Alright you three, I think that's enough future talk for one...early morning." He paused, opening his mouth wide for a lethargic yawn. "Let's see, what time is it...oh, it's 5:00."

Father chuckled. "My word, is it this late already? I suppose it's truly bedtime for you boys."

"Aww! But I want to hear more about the future!" Larry whined. Child Wright chose that moment to yawn loudly. "* ** _yaaaawn_** * Actually I do feel pretty tired..."

"Yeah," my younger self agreed as he rubbed his eyes, "I wouldn't mind going to bed."

"Ugh! You guys are no fun...* ** _yaaawn_** *...okay fine! I guess I'm kinda sleepy too...hey wait a minute, where do we sleep?"

"Hmm..." Wright place a finger on his chin. "Well, not counting the master bedroom or Trucy's room, the agency's apartment has a total of six guest rooms. There's three that are already occupied, so you guys can take the other three left in front of Apollo's room."

The children blinked at him owlishly.

Wright ran a hand through his slightly tousled hair. "Ehhh, how about I'll just show you where to go. Follow me." With that, Wright stood and led the three boys out of the room, leaving father and I alone with each other.

A long stretch of silence settled between us. Father stared at me intensely while I looked down at my lap to avoid meeting his gaze. After another minute or two, I felt my body slowly tensing up before suddenly freezing upon hearing his grave tone, "son, I want to ask you something."

I finally looked up. "Yes father? What is it?"

"You say I had an accident, correct? What kind of accident?"

"Well..." I gripped my elbow. "I believe it was a...car accident."

"Son." Father's voice got louder. "Please, do not take me for a fool. Please tell me the whole truth; what really occurred to me that led you astray?"

"F-father...may I ask why you think that it was not a car accident?"

"Miles, my dearest son," he sighed. "I've been deciphering lies from the truth for years now, do you honestly think I wouldn't know when my own son is lying to me?"

' _Alright, fair enough._ ' I sighed in defeat, mentally scolding myself for being so foolish. Now I feel guilty lying to my father. _Great_.

His eyes narrowed in seriousness. "Miles, please tell me what happened."

It is not a request anymore: it is a _demand_.

I gulped uneasily, trying to shoo the horrendous memories of that day away. "I...I... _I_..."

Father's gaze suddenly softened. He got up from the desk chair and came over to sit on the edge of the bed. He gently placed a warm hand on mine, and then whispered, "it's okay son, if it hurts to remember, then you don't have to tell me."

Suddenly a huge wave of relief, joy, nostalgia, and grief engulfed me. I tried suppressing them, but the more I tried, the more they seem to stir. I clenched my teeth, clutched the blanket covering my lower body, and after another moment I boldly looked father straight in the eyes. "There is this certain incident that happened—will happen—in your time, and it changed us..." I paused, Von Karma's scream echoing faintly in my head. "Father, you...got shot. It was not an accident: it was a murder. The bitter irony is that the one who murdered you was someone I used to look up to. _He_ took me in, and trained me in the ways of a _prosecutor_. _He_ dissolved my dreams of becoming a defense attorney, and had me hating them for quite a long period of time. _He_ was the cause of my nightmares that I had every night for 15 years. _He_ was the one who led me astray from the truth—" A sob erupted from my mouth, and I instantly covered it with my hand. Shocked by the sound that I haven't made in years, I didn't notice father shifting closer to me until the warmth on my hand became a warm hug that invaded my whole being.

Silence once again surrounded us. Father murmured tender, loving words of support into my ear as he rubbed my back in smooth, circular motions. I remembered that this is what he would do whenever I came to him on stormy nights, or whenever I had a bad dream. Tears welled up in my eyes as I wholeheartedly returned the embrace that I had been yearning for a long, _long_ time. With my hands grasping father's familiar trench coat in a desperate need of comfort, I sobbed.

"I-I-I've missed you father. I r-really missed you..."

"Shh...it's alright Miles, it's alright. Everything will be okay now."

I sobbed again, salty tears ready to spill.

"I can tell you've endured a lot, son; now let it all out. I'll be your shoulder to cry on because this time, I'm here for you."

I took in a shaky breath, and pressed my face into father's shoulder, subconsciously wiping the unshed tears on the surprisingly soft fabric of the coat.

"Miles...I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you in the past, but remember this, son: I am proud of you no matter what you do or what you become because you will always be my beloved son, and I will always love you."

I finally burst out crying, letting all of my emotions free for the first time since the resolution of DL-6.

.

.

.

* * *

{ _everyone's Point of View_ }

"Hey morning! You three slept well?" Trucy asked cheerfully as she placed three plates of steaming hot pancakes in front of the drowsy boys.

"Mmmhmmm..." They hummed simultaneously while sipping their grape flavoured juice boxes lazily.

Phoenix laughed. "Haha! I hope so because you guys dropped dead on the first bed you all saw." He brought a coffee mug to his lips before flipping his newspaper to another page.

Little Phoenix sniffed a piece of his pancake before putting it in his mouth. Almost immediately, he perked up. "Wow! These are delicious!"

Larry sniffed his stack of pancakes, and then proceeded to dump a whole bunch of maple syrup on it before jabbing a fork into the stack and biting a huge chunk off like as if he was eating a burger. "Wuuthhhh! Weth eth gooth!" ( _Translation: Wow! This IS good!_ )

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" Miles frowned at him irritably. He then eyed his own stack of pancakes before cutting up a little neat square from one of the pancakes and placed it in his mouth. "Mm! Not bad!"

Trucy happily smiled at the delighted expressions the boys wore as they tore through their pancakes. "I'm glad you guys like them!"

Just then, the adult Edgeworths came into the kitchen/dining room that was connected to the main office.

( _watch episode 4 of the Ace Attorney Anime and you'll get what I mean because instead of a bookcase, there are now TWO freaking doorways connected to Phoenix's office!_ )

Phoenix nodded at them in acknowledgement while Trucy chirped a quick "good morning Mr. and Uncle Edgeworth!" and set two more plates of pancakes in front of two empty seats that the Edgeworths soon sat in.

Little Miles paused in his quest of devouring the fluffy pancakes to greet the newcomers. "Good morning father, good morning adult me."

Edgeworth muttered out a similar greeting before sipping the hot tea that Trucy placed in front of him. He sighed softly in content.

Gregory chuckled lightly. "I do believe that it is no longer morning." He indicated towards the clock.

It showed to be 2:13 PM.

"I suppose we did sleep pretty late, huh?" Phoenix gave a casual smile, putting his newspaper away. "All my employees are either off shopping or taking a long walk through People Park. I think one of my guests is still asleep though," he turned towards the children, "so don't make too much noise, okay?"

The three boys bobbed their heads halfheartedly as they continued scarfing down their breakfast/lunch. Surprisingly, little Phoenix was the first one to finish since Larry started choking halfway. As he sat there waiting for everyone else to finish whatever food or drink they're having, a sudden realization dawned upon him.

"Say, where did our backpacks go?" He asked, tilting his head as he pictured the endless possibilities where his school bag could've ended up. Miles and Larry swallowed their remaining pieces of pancakes, and started to think about their bags, too, when suddenly Miles cried out, "ahhhhh! Oh no! My bag! My bag! What am I gonna do?!"

Larry gave him the most emotionless expression he could muster. "Oh Miles, only a nerd like you could still care about homework at a time like this." He sighed as he shook his head sadly.

"No! You don't understand! It isn't just my homework, it's also my Steel Samurai limited edition action figure! I had to line up for three hours to get it officially signed by the Steel Samurai himself! What if it's lost?! What if it got stolen?! * ** _gasp!_** * Or worse...what if it's broken beyond repair...? Ohh what am I gonna do now?!"

"Dude, you are such a nerd."

"Shut up! At least I'm not a slacker!"

The two started bickering with each other, and poor little Phoenix was literally seated in the middle of their quarrel, trying and failing in calming them down.

' _I hope Blackquill doesn't get woken up by this. I did technically warn them not to make lots of noise, but it'll still be such a shame for them to die young._ ' Phoenix thought with a sigh. Seeing everyone busy doing something, he took this as an opportunity to engage in a quiet conversation with Edgeworth.

( _who, conveniently, sat right next to him_ )

"So? How'd it go?"

"Depends, how long were you listening to us behind the door?"

"Ah, it looks like I've been found out." Phoenix scratched his cheek as he grinned sheepishly.

"How long?" Edgeworth repeated, eyeing him coolly as he sipped his tea.

"Up to about when you started telling your dad everything that Von Karma did to you. I left immediately when I heard you completely breakdown."

"I see."

"...what, that's it?" Phoenix raised an eyebrow at him. "You're not going to threaten me to never tell anyone that I heard the calm and collected Miles Edgeworth sob his heart out? I really thought that when I told you I had heard you cry, you'd get flustered or embarrassed or something other than this 'no reaction' you're showing me."

"Well, you see Wright," he finished his tea and set the cup gently down on one of the few pieces of china Phoenix owned. "After my interactions with my father that night—er, or should I say earlier this morning—I feel refreshed in an invigorating way. Although waking up and finding myself snuggled up to another grown man does make an interesting impression at first."

"Ah yes, that it does." Phoenix nodded in understanding.

"Wright...thank you."

Phoenix's eyes widened and looked at Edgeworth in disbelief. He then placed a hand on his forehead. "Hey Edgeworth, you okay? You're not sick are you?"

Edgeworth swatted the hand away. "Of course I'm not, Wright!"

"Then why'd you thank me?"

"I just felt like doing so, for some odd reason." Edgeworth glanced at his father chiding the boys for their small uproar. He then turned to Phoenix with a mischievous smirk. "Also, I don't think I've ever thanked you for pulling me towards the _Wright_ way."

Phoenix rolled his eyes before breaking out a cheeky, friendly grin. "No problem! After all, we _are_ 'more than simply acquaintances', aren't we Edgeworth?"

* * *

 **Save data file?**

Yes

No

...

 **Yes**

Progress saved.

* * *

 **Evidence: Edgeworth's Inventory**

 **Prosecutor Badge**

:This is my prosecution badge, it is proof of my profession. Despite its small size, it is actually much heavier than it seems.

 **Glasses**

:My glasses that I usually wear outside of court due to my newly discovered nearsightedness. My father was once nearsighted as well, so I suppose it is only natural that sooner or later I needed to wear these.

* * *

 **Profile: Edgeworth's Perceptions**

 **Miles Edgeworth**

:I am the local residing Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Building. I was once feared as Miles Edgeworth the demon prosecutor, but currently my close associates know me as the tea loving, truth seeking, magenta-obsessed Chief Prosecutor who may or may not be also known as Miles Edgeworth the Steel Samurai fanboy. I suppose I have no regrets…?

 **Phoenix Wright**

:I once considered this man as a thorn on my side, but now I view him as my 'partner-in-crime'. He and I have come a long way. We know each other so well that during court proceedings we are able to have debates with only our expressions and actions. Of course we don't do it very often because we always receive weird looks from the judge afterwards.

 **Gregory Edgeworth**

:As illogical as it is, I've accepted the fact that my father, who is supposed to be deceased, is instead standing in front of me alive and unwounded. I feel...exceptionally better with his presence around me. In retrospect it may be odd for a grown man to cuddle, chastise, or call another equally grown man 'son', but I could care less about that because for the first time in a long time, I am happy.

 **Trucy Wright**

:Wright's adopted daughter. I don't really believe in magic, but she is an exception. I can tell Wright loves her very much. She can turn any cheap quality beverage into the finest taste of luxury with her expert skill in preparing them; a skill that I am thankful for since Wright possesses the cheapest instant tea bags I've ever seen.

 **Simon Blackquill**

:He is an intimidating, yet honourable figure. Despite being an ex-inmate, I can tell he is just a lawful and simple man who has a fondness for birds. I've heard of a small rumour floating about portraying him as an Otaku who loves anything samurai...perhaps I shall introduce the Steel Samurai to him one day.

 **Miles Edgeworth(child)**

:He is...well, me. More specifically, the child version of me. He is not as naïve as most children, however he is still but a child. Knowing what is to become of him, it pains me to see his enthusiastic passion of becoming a defense attorney. Putting aside the mixed feelings I have for him, I feel a gentle intrigue nonetheless whenever I interact with him.

 **Phoenix Wright(child)**

:This is the child form of Wright, and he is even more dense that the one I normally socialize with. It is probably due to his childish innocence that naturally causes him to be even more clueless. He invokes a strange, fuzzy feeling within me that tempts me to protect him from the nasty, cruel world. Unlike his adult version, he is much more tolerable, and I find him rather cute.

( _I can't believe I just called Wright, of all people, 'cute'..._ )

 **Larry Butz(child)**

:Preposterous and obnoxious, this Larry is no different than the bigger one that I know. Speaking of which, where has that buffoon gone to? I faintly remember him shouting something about traveling around Europe before barging out of my office, and taking my precious lunch with him.


	4. Turnabout Little Klavier Appears!

**A/N:** It's Exam week! Noooo!

On to more important matters, have you guys watched the Ace Attorney Anime yet? If you haven't, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! On episode 8, remember how Maya was training in that kitchen? That's the one **I wrote about in my story in chapter 3 before the episode even came out! I didn't think that the extra door connected to the office was actually a kitchen!** Woo hoo! I totally called it!

 **Thank you** for favoriting and following me _**xiayou**_ and _**Kanra-sanXD**_! You two made my day!

Since nobody—ABSOLUTELY NO ONE—is allowed a chance to court someone romantically and/or shown to date in the series(aside from Feenie, but honestly that relationship with Dahlia was really one-sided, and Phoenix didn't really put in an effort to get back together with Iris so...) **I've decided to go slightly astray from the facts and toy with Athena and Blackquill being together**...because I CAN!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Ace Attorney except their products! If I did own Ace Attorney, then I would totally make various pairings/couples CANON! (kiss already, you fools!)

* * *

"Talking"

' _Thinking_ '

'Quoting'

 **OBJECTION!**

* _ **sound effects**_ *

( _Extra info_ )

{ _scene change_ }

 _Text/_ TEXT = Emphasis

" **tAlkiNg liKe ThiS** "= voices from another time that the character(s) is(are) hearing

* * *

 **Chapter No. 4**

Turnabout This was Supposed to Be a Break Chapter but Now It's More Like Little Klavier's Appearance Chapter

...

 _Date:_ January 1, 2028

 _Time:_ 3:00 PM

 _Location:_ Wright Anything Agency

{ _everyone's Point of View_ }

"I must depart, farewell." Edgeworth stated curtly, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose as he straightened his cravat in front of a mirror by the door. "Wright, thank you for your hospitality, but I really must be off."

"Huh? Where are you going?" Phoenix asked, popping his head out from the mini-fridge a few feet away from Edgeworth with a bottle of grape juice in hand.

"I must go fetch some files from my office."

"Will you be coming back?" Little Miles asked as he approached Edgeworth with inquiring eyes.

"Perhaps I will." Edgeworth nodded at his younger self while putting on his winter coat. He checked for any possessions he may have forgotten to take with him before departing with a final goodbye to Phoenix and the three boys.

Currently only Phoenix, the fourth graders, and Blackquill are still present in the agency. Trucy left for the Wonder Bar 30 minutes ago due to the owner requesting specifically for her to perform her magic show there for the entire evening. Apollo and Athena still haven't returned from their errands, and Gregory Edgeworth went out searching for clues a little while ago on why they are here and how to get back to their own time.

"...so now what?" Larry asked, breaking the silence.

"Well," Phoenix stood up from his crouch in front of the mini-fridge. "Mr. Gregory did ask me to look after you guys while he's out investigating, so as long as nothing catches on fire, I'm fine with you guys doing anything."

"Oh! Can we watch TV?" Little Phoenix asked hopefully.

Phoenix shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."

"Yay!" Both little Phoenix and Larry cheered before dashing to the main office that also served as a living room.

"Erm, Mr. Wright, sir?"

Phoenix glanced down towards the source of the voice. "Yeah Miles? Oh, and also you don't have to be so formal with me. You can just call me 'Phoenix', you know."

Miles tilted his head before nodding. "Alright then, Mr. Phoenix. I'm not really a TV person, so would you mind terribly if I read some of your law books instead?"

"Oh sure! Of course I wouldn't mind." Phoenix reached up towards his long since abandoned shelf of legal books. He paused to wipe off the thick layer of dust before handing one over to Miles's awaiting hands. "Here you go. Oh that's right, I remember now: in fourth grade you love to read laws books, especially at recess."

"Yes, I do." Miles flipped the book open and cringed at the cloud of unknown particles that flew towards his face.

Phoenix rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ehehe, sorry about that. I haven't really read them in a few years."

Miles examined the yellow, untouched paper before directing a quizzical look at the adult. "Just how long is 'a few years' to you? It seems like this book was only opened once, and then it was left alone for a decade!"

' _Well funny story...it actually HAS been a decade...15 years to be exact..._ ' Phoenix thought meekly.

Miles sighed before shrugging. "No matter. Thank you for the book, Mr. Phoenix."

"You're welcome."

With that, Miles turned around and walked towards the kitchen/dining room, completely ignoring the calls of excitement from his two friends as he passed by the main office.

"Wow! Look at all those channels!"

"No way! They still have that show?! Play it Phoenix!"

The Steel Samurai's theme song came on, and not a moment later Miles joined them on the couch for the rerun episode.

With a smile tugging at his lips, Phoenix shook his head in amusement before heading off to his desk to finish his remaining paperwork.

* * *

{ _Gregory's Point of View, 2 hours later_ }

' _The weather was so much better back in my time. The snow was even melting that day._ ' I shivered, pocketing my hands into my trench coat.

It has been more than 2 hours and I have found no lead, no evidence—absolutely nothing had yielded from my search except exhaustion and cold fingers.

I sighed tiredly as I strolled along People Park's pathway. The snow crunched softly under my foot as I continued to contemplate on the present situation despite feeling a bit fatigued.

' _This is starting to look dire. Is it even possible for us to return?_ ' Suddenly a strange, faint wail brought me out of my thoughts. I stopped to listen closely to my surroundings, but found nothing odd sounding amongst the noisy winter wind.

' _Maybe that was only the wind._ ' I looked carefully around one last time before deciding to end my investigation for today.

' _It is very kind of Mr. Wright to offer to share his abode with us._ ' I thought, remembering the man's friendly smile as he casually agreed to let us stay with him in the meantime until we can get back. ' _I should perhaps try to repay him somehow._ '

* _ **crunch**_ *

* _ **crunch**_ *

* _ **crunch**_ *

* _ **pat..?**_ *

I halted at the unexpected dull sound that came from the snow covered ground beneath me. I glanced down and removed my foot to get a proper look at what I've stepped on.

' _...is this...a pair of bloomers?_ '

I blinked again, slowly bending down to retrieve it from the cold, fluffy snow. I dusted the remaining ice crystals off and gazed at it, feeling rather dumbfounded at seeing the brilliant pink hearts running along the azure blue silk.

' _...and quite a cute looking pair as well, might I add._ '

I blushed, suddenly aware of the fact that I was actually _admiring_ a pair of women's undergarments. Without another thought, I swiftly stuffed the feminine clothing into my pocket, thinking that maybe I might run into the owner who've lost these nice looking—

' _Stop! Gregory, let's be a proper gentleman and stop thinking about women's undergarments. For goodness sakes, you are a father with a beloved son to raise!_ '

With that thought in mind, I hastily left the park while still blushing madly, unaware of the child unconscious in the snow bank.

* * *

{ _Back at the Wright Anything Agency_ }

Athena skipped through the building's corridors leading towards the office, feeling rejuvenated from her long jog around the neighbourhood. In the middle of her walk, she decided to drop by her apartment to change into a more suitable outfit for jogging through the snow. Right now she is wearing a light, puffy winter jacket( _yellow, of course_ ) zipped up with a tank top underneath, a pair of thick white sweatpants, grey furry boots, yellow mittens, and fluffy white earmuffs.

' _Ahh that was refreshing. Nothing beats exercising on a cool, winter day!_ ' She smiled happily to herself. ' _It's getting a little late, so I guess I need to report back to Mr. Wright to tell him that I'm heading home for the day._ '

Up ahead she spotted a figure clad in a black winter trench coat with a mop of grey hair. Athena tilted her head curiously before quickening her pace to catch up to the man heading in the office's direction.

"Oh! Is that you Mr. Edgeworth?"

The person turned their head to look back at her, and nodded in greeting upon recognizing who it was that called his name.

"Yes indeed it is I...Ms. Cykes, was it?"

Athena nodded in confirmation.

"So Mr. Edgeworth, what brings you back to the office?"

"I've recalled that the pair of my sleepwear I wore last night is still present in Mr. Wright's wardrobe; thus I have come back for it."

"Ah okay, I see." Athena nodded in understanding, curious about the sudden fluttering beat of the chief prosecutor's heart, but she decided not to question him about it.

They soon reached the Wright Anything Agency's door, and upon entering the office, they were met with a peculiar sight.

Blackquill stood attentively like a hellhound with his hands folded on top of his sheathed sword which was placed vertically upright in-between his legs. He glared at the three trembling forms sitting neatly on top of their legs on the couch.

"Have you cleaned the dirty dishes?"

Little Phoenix shakily raised his hands. "I have, s-sir..."

"With soap?"

"Y-y-yes I have, sir..."

"Have you mopped the countertops?"

Little Larry spoke up next. "I-I-I did, sir..."

"Even the shelf containing the dusty, pitiful law books?"

"Y-yup...sir..."

"Have you swept the floor clean of its dirt and grime?

Little Miles nodded with a shaky salute. "Y-yes sir! Clean and free of dirt and grime...sir!"

"..."

Blackquill stared piercingly at them like a canyon hawk—making the three boys even more uncomfortable—before cracking one of his intimidating smirks at the already terrified children.

"Well done, little trainees. You have survived what the first day in prison is like. Did you find that fun?"

The petrified boys shook their heads.

"Good. 'Tis not fun and games in prison. There are evil and foul men at every corner, waiting to strike you down, and the width of the cells are about the length of that hideous sofa you are sitting on. It is unbearable, and ten times as worse as what you've experienced today. I recommend you three to never be so foolish as to end up in there."

The boys nodded their heads in unison, tears prickling at the corner of their eyes.

"Hey Quilly, whatcha doing there?"

Blackquill spun around to face the bewildered expressions of Athena and Edgeworth.

"Cykes-chan, Edgeworth-dono. Apologies, I didn't hear you come in." He turned back to the children and barked. "You are all DISMISSED!"

The children jumped in alarm, but did not make any movement to stand; their legs probably asleep and still frozen with fear. Tiny tears prickled their eyes, making them look like they were going to get beheaded or something.

Athena could feel a sweatdrop forming on the back of her head as she wondered just what kind of horrors Blackquill had put them through. ' _Poor boys, I feel so sorry for them. I can practically sense the waves of pure terror rolling off of them from a mile away...huh, I guess that explains the flashes of fear and worry I kept sensing earlier. I thought a murder had happened or something._ '

Edgeworth glanced around. "Prosecutor Blackquill, where is Mr. Wright?"

"He stated he had to go restock the fridge...'grocery shopping', he said. Upon awakening from my rest, he left me in charge with the duty to babysit these little ones."

"Why that is quite inconvenient..." Edgeworth sighed, before making up his mind to wait for Phoenix's return. He began unstrapping his coat and hung it on the nearby coat rack.

"Are you staying here, Edgeworth-dono?"

"Yes, it looks like I am."

"I see. I personally feel that I've overstayed my welcome; thus would it be rude of me to pass on the job of babysitting these little ones to you?"

Edgeworth paused, before nodding. "I don't see why not. It is getting quite late outside, so it's reasonable for you to want to return home. I will be staying until Mr. Wright returns anyway."

Blackquill bowed slightly. "Many thanks, Edgeworth-dono."

Athena hopped on over to Blackquill and happily took his hand in hers. "If you are staying, Mr. Edgeworth, then I hope it wouldn't be too much of a bother for you to also watch the office while you're at it! Please and thank you!"

Edgeworth sighed through his nose and nodded. "I suppose I can do that as well."

"Thanks so much!" Athena beamed at him before heading towards the door with Blackquill in tow. "Well we're off, goodbye Mr. Edgeworth! See you later boys! C'mon Quilly! I'll show you the noodle place I've been talking about yesterday. I think it's call Edloon's Noodles and..." The voices gradually faded away as the doors closed softly.

Edgeworth looked back at the three trembling boys who were all signing in relief.

"I'm so glad you're back!" Little Phoenix exclaimed with unshed tears still perched in the corner of his eyes. He jumped up from his half-kneel half-sit position—slightly wobbled a bit when his feet touched the floor, but quickly recovered—and ran over to hug Edgeworth's legs.

"I honestly thought we were going to die..." Little Miles muttered, slowly getting off of the couch while staring at the door warily as if the scary man would return in the next second.

"I-I think I peed a little in my pants..." Larry whimpered, still frozen in place due to either fear or embarrassment—we will never know.

"Ugh, really?" Miles asked, grimacing. "To be honest, I—I think I almost did too..."

Edgeworth looked down at the head of spiked black hair uncertainly, and tried—rather awkwardly—removing the child nuzzling his abdomen. In the end, he sighed and gave up on trying to remove the skinny, yet surprisingly strong arms wrapped around him as little Phoenix just simply won't let go of his iron hold.

Edgeworth waddled—still ever so awkwardly—over to the couch like some sort of magenta, oversized emperor penguin. He hesitantly bent down to sit on the sofa, hoping that little Phoenix would get the hint and let go—or at least lose his grip—but nope! Edgeworth now finds himself with a face pressed snugly up to his stomach, and a small chest practically sprawled on his lap.

Edgeworth's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think of ways to get out of this slightly uncomfortable situation before a tug on his right arm attracted his attention. He looked over to see Larry worming himself under his arm, and then latching onto the side of his suit jacket like a lifeline. He laid his head under Edgeworth's arm and sighed contently.

A much more softer, tentative tug happened on his left. Edgeworth swivelled his head around, questioningly raising a brow at his younger self who was bashfully avoiding his gaze, but nonetheless refused to loosen the grasp on his arm.

Edgeworth glanced up towards the ceiling and sighed in defeat, resignedly accepting the physical contact he was receiving with whatever's left of his dignity. He gently pulled his younger self towards his side—an invitation which little Miles gratefully accepted and immediately proceeded to lean on Edgeworth's bicep while clinging to the rest of Edgeworth's arm.

Forcing himself to gracefully accept the situation that he somehow found himself in, Edgeworth demanded his tense muscles to relax and willed himself not to twitch in discomfort. ' _Of course, how can I forget? They are just children, so it is understandable that they are incredibly shaken up by Prosecutor Blackquill's intimidation methods._ * _ **Sigh**_ * _, I suppose I have to allow them this physical contact as a way of comforting them in order to calm them down..._ '

* * *

{ _Athena's Point of View, at Edloon's Noodles_ }

"By the way…" Athena spoke up as she slurped down a mouthful of steaming, surprisingly not so very salty noodles. "Why were you tormenting those poor kids? You do know that one of them is technically your superior and the other is technically my boss, right?"

Blackquill finished chewing and swallowed before he replied to the defence attorney's question. "I am well aware. However, they are still just little ones. Their mentalities are vastly different."

"Well I get that," Athena stated absentmindedly as she fed Taka a piece of meat from her noodle bowl. The hawk, perched neatly on Blackquill's shoulder like usual, shrieked softly in thanks. "But I've never really imagined you as the type to be super intimidating to children on purpose. Did they do something to wrong you?" She stared at him with big, inquiring cerulean eyes.

"No. They have done nothing to offend me in anyway. 'Tis their curiosity that got them in that predicament."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"They asked me about my profession, and one thing let to another. They soon learned of my previous status as an inmate, and asked what prison was like. In order to satisfy their minds, I gave them a demonstration."

Athena stared at the dark prosecutor with an incredulous look. "Wait, so you made them experience what prison is like?"

"Yes." He bluntly replied.

Athena gave the prosecutor a deadpanned look. "Quilly, you don't do that to children. _No one_ does that to children." She sighed. "Oh boy, those kids are probably scarred for the rest of their lives…" Athena directed a puzzled look at the taller lawyer. "From what I now remember, I thought you were good at dealing with children? I mean, you were great with me when I was younger."

He huffed while feeding Taka a piece of meat from his bowl. "That's because it was _you_ , Athena-chan. I'm only good with you. You were different." He looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "Also, life as an inmate does wonders to reduce one's people skills within the span of 7 years."

"Right, right." She sighed again, rolling her eyes. "You just can't maintain that shred of humanity, can you? Did ya perhaps lose your common sense as well?" She poked the side of Blackquill's ribs teasingly, eliciting a grunt from the fearsome prosecutor.

Blackquill smirked. "I don't think it was that bad. I believe it was a valuable learning experience for them."

Athena instantly shot him down. "No, it's not."

"Oh? But the evidence suggest otherwise—"

"IT'S NOT."

* * *

{ _Phoenix's Point of View, 15 minutes later_ }

With my hands full of heavy grocery bags, I struggled to get the door of the building leading to my office open. At one point, I was tempted to hold some of the bags with my teeth and open the door, but declined against it because that would hurt my jaws very much. I thought of putting them down on the ground, but I'm pretty sure a couple of eggs had broken out of their cartons and were dangling somewhere at the bottom of the bags, and I really don't want to crush them. I just stood there for awhile, in the windy winter weather, trying to figure out how in the world I am supposed to get in.

"Need a hand, Mr. Wright?" A smooth, deep voice sounded behind me. I turned around and smiled in greeting.

"Hello Mr. Gregory! Back from your investigation?"

"Yes, indeed I am." Mr. Gregory replied with his own smile before offering to take some of the bags off of my hands. I grinned gratefully before opening the door and holding it for him to pass through first.

"So any luck?" I asked casually as we headed towards the office at a leisure pace.

"Unfortunately, no." A frown replace his earlier friendly smile.

The corners of my mouth dropped a bit. "Oh, well that's too bad...but don't worry, I mean something will come up eventually, right?"

Mr. Gregory sighed tiredly. "I do hope so."

We finally reached the office door, and after fumbling with the keys for a little while only to find it unlocked, I laughed meekly and held the door open again for Mr. Gregory with a sheepish grin.

I closed the door with my foot, and then froze in my tracks along with Mr. Gregory when we reached my main office/living room.

The scene was heartwarming—no, _beautiful_ even.

Sitting there on the sofa, in all his frilly glory, was Edgeworth: peacefully sound asleep and surrounded by smiling, unconscious children.

Larry and Miles are fondly clutching onto his arms, both of them with a content expression as their heads rest on the sides of Edgeworth's chest. Miles has a small smile plastered on his face, and Larry was even drooling a little! My kid self, little Phoenix, was slumped on top of Edgeworth's lap with his head pressed against Edgeworth's stomach in a comfortable position, and his arms bear hugging Edgeworth's knees. He looks pretty happy in that spot, too. Edgeworth himself seems surprisingly relaxed, and not bothered in the slightest with being cuddled like a teddy bear.

Mr. Gregory and I looked at each other with knowing smiles, and proceeded to tiptoe to the kitchen in order to prevent waking up the four and destroying the touching scene. As we began quietly putting away the groceries, my mind wondered where Apollo and Athena could be by now.

' _Hmm, they must've gone home already._ ' I thought, absentmindedly setting one of the newly bought grape juice bottles aside for later consumption.

* * *

{ _Apollo's Point of View_ }

A breath of wispy white mist escaped Apollo's mouth: a sigh.

Eyes distant, he trudged slowly along the pathway coming from the cemetery where he went to visit his recently deceased best friend, Clay.

' _Clay..._ '

Another sigh escaped his mouth.

' _I still don't understand, why must you leave? Why you of all people? Why? Just when you were about to make your dream come true, you...agh, what a cruel fate._ '

The sky had turned dark despite it only being 6:30 PM, but Apollo didn't care. He doesn't care about the chilly, freezing temperatures that came along with the absence of the sun, nor does he care about his lack of proper winter clothing. The only thing keeping him warm was Clay's thick jacket hanging around his frame, embracing him with Clay's familiar earthy scent.

Lost in his depressed thoughts, Apollo didn't notice until it was too late that his feet had taken him to People Park instead of his apartment. With another sigh, he prepared to head back when suddenly, his ears picked up on the sounds of somebody crying.

' _Huh? Who would be out at this time of the night—er, evening?_ '

He glanced around, trying to pinpoint where the loud sobs are coming from. After confirming that the weeping was coming from off the walkway, Apollo gulped to steel his nerves before leaping into the snowbank. Needless to say, Apollo instantly regretted ignoring his lonely pair of winter boots sitting on his empty shoe rack.

' _Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold coldcoldcoldcoldcold!_ ' Was the only thought running through his mind as he hissed, hopped, skipped, and jumped his way through the thick snow. Under Clay's jacket, Apollo was clad only in his usual red attorney suit, so it didn't take long for him to start shivering. The crying got louder the higher the snow got to his waist until his entire legs were buried under the white, sparkly blanket. Now Apollo regretted ignoring his lonely pair of snow pants that hung right beside his lonely pair of winter boots.

Finally reaching his destination, Apollo froze in his steps when he saw a small child curled up in a fetal position, trembling and quivering from most likely sitting in the deep, cold snow. Apollo hurriedly hopped to the child's side, kneeling down and disregarding his own steadily dropping body temperature.

"Hey! Are you okay?!"

The child didn't respond to his question, instead Apollo swore he saw the violently shaking form flinching away from him. Upon further inspection, Apollo noticed the child's skin turning a dangerous shade of white with a very faint tint of light blue, and the fact that the child was in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and sandals was probably the cause of the sickly colour.

' _What the—?! Who in their right minds dresses their kid in summer clothing in the dead middle of winter, and leaves them out in the freaking snow?!_ ' Without a second thought, Apollo took off Clay's jacket and wrapped it around the child. He then scooped up the child bridal style, and the quivering bundle in his arms began trying to squirm away from him.

"Wh-whoa calm down! Easy there, I'm just trying to help!"

Apollo strengthened his hold until he was basically squeezing the child, making it difficult for them to move at all. The child whimpered and looked up at him with expressive blue eyes clouded in fright. Apollo stilled, blinking as he stared into the child's deep blue pools which were somehow strangely familiar to him.

Time seemed to have stopped around them as Apollo took in more details of the child's—the boy's—appearance. He looks no older than five or six, and has a head of short, platinum blonde hair perfectly framing his angelic face, and big, bright blue eyes that are currently watching him in fear.

' _He looks...really familiar...yet where could I have seen him?_ '

Suddenly Apollo's ignorance of the snow disappeared, and he became painfully aware that he couldn't feel his numb toes. Or his legs for that matter.

Holding the boy close to his chest, hoping to at least keep the trembling body warm, Apollo did his little hissing and hopping dance back towards the walkway while trying his best to keep the writhing child from squirting out of his arms.

When he reached the park's pathway, Apollo looked down at the child who had ceased struggling only to find him slowly nodding off to sleep. Apollo shook the boy hard to make sure he actually doesn't fall into what would be his eternal sleep.

' _I've got to get him somewhere warm!_ ' With that thought in mind, Apollo panicked and dashed off towards his apartment building two blocks away.

When he reached his apartment, entirely out of breath, he groaned and wanted to bang his head against the wall because he remembered that the Wright Anything Agency was actually _much_ closer than his home.

' _Oh well, no point in crying over spilt milk._ '

Unlocking the door swiftly—and making sure the boy was awake by shaking him again—Apollo stumbled into the apartment, nearly forgetting to close the door. He hastily toed off his shoes and dashed to the warmest room he could think of: his bedroom.

He place the half-frozen child on his bed and covered him with multiple layers of blankets. Realizing that the blankets are going to take awhile to warm up and that the boy was quickly falling asleep, Apollo panicked again and rushed to his closet to change out of his dripping wet suit into a pair of warm, dry pyjamas. He then joined the boy under the covers, embracing the freezing cold skin to share his own body heat with the boy.

"Hey, don't fall asleep! Come on, you can't fall asleep now...! WAKE UP!"

The child jolted awake at the unexpected loudness of Apollo's voice.

' _Cords of Steel, thank you so much._ ' Apollo thought proudly.

Now with the boy's full attention, Apollo smiled kindly at him. "Hey there, what's your name?"

The boy simply stared at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Apollo spoke as gently as possible. "I just want to help you. It's okay, you'll be okay now. You'll be fine."

Still no response from the child. Apollo briefly wondered if the boy was deaf, but decided against it since the boy was responsive to his Cords of Steel.

"I'm Apollo, Apollo Justice." Apollo flashed him a friendly grin. "Can you tell me your name?"

A few seconds went by before the timid boy in his arms finally opened his mouth.

"Wer bist du?" ( _Translation: Who are you?_ )

Apollo blinked in confusion. Scrunching up his eyebrows, Apollo tried to decipher the language that was spoken from the boy's mouth.

' _He's foreign? He doesn't understand any English then?_ ' Apollo thought, sweatdropping. ' _So I've been speaking to a brick wall this whole time? No wonder he looked scared as hell! To him, I'm probably just some strange man babbling out random gibberish. Oh man, at first he probably even thought that I was kidnapping him!_ '

"Wo bin ich? Wer bist du?" The small boy asked again, looking up at Apollo uncertainly. ( _Translation: Where am I? Who are you?_ )

"Umm...me no comprehendo?" Apollo spoke, sweating a little. The boy only tilted his head at him curiously. Apollo sighed.

With one arm still wrapped around the boy, he gestured broadly to himself. "Apollo. _Apollo_. APP-POLL-LOW."

The child blinked before trying to mimic the sound. "Apple-low."

"Apollo."

"App-lo-lo."

" _Apollo._ "

"Appollo."

Apollo looked uncertain for a second before nodding. ' _Close enough._ '

The child pointed at him. "Appollo."

Apollo nodded while pointing to himself. "Apollo."

Finally a shy smile broke across the boy's face. He then copied Apollo's broad gesturing, pointed at himself, and said,

"Klavier."

"KLAVIER?!" Apollo shouted in surprise, scaring the boy a bit. Apollo forced himself to calm down lest he terrorize the poor child even more.

Apollo blushed as he pointed at the boy. "Klavier."

The boy—presumably named Klavier—made sure Apollo wasn't going to explode again, then smiled in amusement. He nodded while pointing to himself. "Ja. Klavier."

' _What the hell...?_ ' Apollo thought helplessly. ' _Okay, now that I think about it, he does look sort of like Prosecutor Gavin, but I wasn't expecting his name to actually BE Klavier. According to Klavier_ — _er, Prosecutor Gavin, his name is an incredibly rare German name, and very few people have the same name as him. The likelihood of a child possessing the same name, AND looking very similar to him is highly unlikely...unless..._ '

' _He came from the past...like Mr. Wright and Mr. Edgeworth's past selves..._ '

Apollo shook his head and narrowed his eyes in thought. ' _No, that's crazy...! Time travel shouldn't be possible...yet it has happened anyway this morning...so it's possible then!? This boy could be Prosecutor Gavin's past self! Oh dear lord, I think I'm going mentally insane!_ '

"Appollo?" Apollo snapped out of his jittery trance to look down at the bo—Klavier.

"Erm...ja, Klavier?"

"Danke." With that, little Klavier nuzzled Apollo's chest and dozed off. For a moment there, Apollo was about to yell again to wake the mini-Klavier up from falling asleep forever, but paused as he noticed that the previously pale skin had turned into a more healthy, tanned colour. ( _Translation: Thank you._ )

Apollo smiled softly at little Klavier's sleeping innocent face, feeling glad that he's went from kidnapper to someone the boy could trust.

"Sleep tight, Klavier." Apollo whispered before shifting his hold into a more comfortable position, and quickly fell asleep himself.

That night, Clay's death didn't even breach Apollo's dreams.

* * *

 **Save data file?**

Yes

No

...

 **Yes**

Progress saved.

* * *

 **Evidence: Apollo's Items**

 **Attorney Badge**

:This is my badge; coded 29003 as proof of me being a certified defence attorney. Mr. Wright has an odd habit of presenting his around people a lot, and I don't blame him. I'm proud of being what I am, too.

 **Bracelet**

:This is the only thing that my mother left for me when she disappeared from my life when I was a baby. It helps me concentrate on people's subtle body motions.

 **Clay's Jacket**

:Clay's astronaut jacket. It was the only thing salvaged from the bombings. I've managed to convince the Space Center into letting me keep it since they knew Clay and I were very close.

* * *

 **Profile: Apollo's Opinions**

 **Apollo Justice**

:I'm Apollo Justice and I'm fine! I'm the first employee of the Wright Anything Agency, and yet I _still_ haven't gotten a raise. Recently I've been involved in a courtroom bombing, and it's a complete miracle that I'm still alive even after getting speared in the back by a chunk of unforgiving cement...ouch.

 **Phoenix Wright**

:He's my boss and my secret idol—but don't tell him that though! He is an amazing defence attorney, worthy of being a legend. He has helped me see the truth more than once now, and I'm very grateful for that. I'm glad he's off his lazy butt and quit his 'occupation' of being a hobo, because in all seriousness, we all think that it is much better for society when he's an attorney. The man really loves his daughter and his grape juice.

 **Trucy Wright**

:She is my half-sister that I've just found out not too long ago. At first she may seem like the eccentric type—actually scratch that, she _is_ the eccentric type, but she truly means well. She has the same ability of sensing people's body habits that I have, albeit weaker, but it's still there. Oh, and did I mention that she is an amazing magician?

 **Athena Cykes**

:Sometimes, Athena reminds me of Trucy. She's got this energetic attitude that always cheers me up, and gets me pumping before the start of any trial whenever I'm nervous. I think she's the best partner any defence attorney could have wished for. I still feel guilty for accusing her of murder though...but in the end, she just laughed and waved it off as she said that she forgives me. I'm pretty sure that she and Prosecutor Blackquill have begun dating.

 **Klavier Gavin**

:He used to play in a band called The Gavinners, but he disbanded them a year ago; now he's more focused on prosecuting. He basically represents everything that I don't really like: loud rock music, always seeking for attention, merciless teasing, and a total flirt with the female population. However, I do confess that he is a pretty OK guy...I mean I do like him—maybe. Sort of. A lot—to a certain extent—you know what? I'm just gonna shut up now.

 **Simon Blackquill**

:Prosecutor Blackquill is...how do I put this...really _really_ scary. He and that hawk of his are like something from the depths of my nightmares. I mean seriously, for crying out loud, who owns a pet hawk and trains it to tear defence attorneys to shreds during court while trying to slash them in half with _fingers_?! Honestly, I'd prefer Klavier as the prosecution over him any day. At least his teasings doesn't cost me an arm...or my head.

 **Clay Terran**

:Clay...is my best friend that I met from junior high. He passed away—no, he was murdered—not too long ago just when he was about to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. I...I don't want to talk about this anymore...

 **Klavier Gavin(child)**

:He's...uh, he's...w-well, he's...umm...he's very...er, he's...to a certain point he's...he...oh I give up!

( _He's really adorable..._ )


	5. Turnabout the Demon and the Demon Hater

**A/N:** Hey guys! Exams are over, but now I've got summer school to do...wah. Anyway, here's an update before I get too busy.

 **My apologies to** **_FyreByrd(guest)_** **for the review confusion.** I did noticed your reviews, but on that day I was too busy studying for my Biology exam to actually login and moderate your reviews. That's why they didn't show up until an hour later, ha ha...ha...but **it's nice to know that you—and everyone else—enjoys this story so far.** I'm trying to stay in CANON(Athena and Blackquill are an exception though), but yes, I'll drop teeny-tiny hints of some couples/pairings, and I'll just leave you all to your own imaginations. ;)

Also, **it's 2016!** Which means that on May 2 we missed a malpractice of Grey Surgical Clinic that killed 14 patients which leads to Ini Miney having that car accident! And that on July 31, Cindy Stone is going to get murdered by Sawit, and Phoenix is going to have his debut as a defence attorney! And on Christmas Edgeworth is going to get convicted! Holy crap, I want to say "LET'S GO STOP THOSE MURDERS!" but that will just mess up the whole timeline and we wouldn't have much of a game plot anymore.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own anything of Ace Attorney except my games and my right to be a fan. Ace Attorney belongs to Capcom. If I did own Ace Attorney, I would have already made Dai Gyakuten Saiban "The Great Turnabout" available everywhere! Naruhodo Ryuunosuke is just too darn cute for his own good!

* * *

"Talking"

' _Thinking_ '

'Quoting'

 **OBJECTION!**

* ** _sound effects_** *

( _Extra info_ )

{ _scene change_ }

 _Text/_ TEXT = Emphasis

" **tAlkiNg liKe ThiS** "= voices from another time that the character(s) is(are) hearing

* * *

 **Chapter No. 5**

Turnabout the More the Merrier so Here Comes the Demon and the Demon Hater

...

 _Date:_ January 2, 2028

 _Time:_ 7:00 AM

 _Location:_ Apollo's Apartment

{ _little Klavier's Point of View_ }

Little Klavier scrunched up his eyes and let out a kitten-like yawn while subconsciously kicking the thick blankets off of him with his feet. He opened his sleepy eyes, and just stared blankly off into space for a moment before cocking his head to the side in confusion.

' _Did I sleepwalk into mein Bruder's room again? But then again, Bruder's room has always been light purple. Light purple is his favourite color, so why did he paint his whole room a different color overnight? Hehe, I have such a silly Bruder._ ' ( _Note: Mein = My, Bruder = Brother_ )

He glanced over on the bed, and found the space beside him absent of his brother's sleeping form. ' _Huh? Where did Bruder go? Did he go potty?_ '

It took awhile, but realization finally sank in little Klavier's mind that he was not in his brother's room. In fact, he's pretty sure he's no longer even in his house upon further examining the strange posters( _'CORDS OF STEEL': THE ASSAULT ON THE EARDRUMS Volume 2.0! GET THEM WHILE THEY'RE BLASTING LOUD!_ ) taped to the walls of the foreign room.

He scrambled to sit up and looked around frantically, eyes widening and fear gripping his little heart. ' _Where am I? Where's Bruder? What am I doing here? Wh-what happened?_ '

* * *

{ _Flashback, about 13 hours ago_ }

"Bruder! Bruder! Hurry up Bruder!" Little Klavier skipped happily along the sidewalk, grinning back at his older, and apparently slower brother.

"Klavier, wait up. You know I'm not as energetic as you." Panted one young teenage Kristoph Gavin. He couldn't help but smile at his little brother's antics while trying his best to jog up to him.

"But it's ice cream Bruder! _Ice cream_!"

"Yes yes, I know. You've been chanting that you want ice cream all day. I promised you I would buy you some after I finished my studies, didn't I?"

"Well hurry up! The sun is getting hotter and I'm not getting any cooler!"

Kristoph rolled his eyes. "Oh my, aren't you a demanding little person." His only reply is a flurry of giggles.

They eventually reached the local ice cream vendor—a kind old man well past his prime years lounging around on a nearby park bench. Once he saw the two brothers approaching, he stood up and greeted them good-heartedly.

"Ah boys! How are you two this fine afternoon?"

"We are doing well, Herr Günter. However, this little Bruder of mine is practically harassing me to buy him ice cream." ( _Note: Herr = Mister, Mr._ )

Said little brother grinned cheekily in response.

The old vendor chuckled in amusement. "Well then, my boy, let me help you out with that. What flavour would you like, little one?"

"Chocolate!"

Kristoph smiled softly at his brother's enthusiasm. "And a vanilla for me, please."

"Here you go, enjoy!"

"Yay!" Little Klavier gleefully took the sweet, frozen treat and began eagerly decimating the chocolatey goodness.

"So Kristoph, my boy, how have you been? How are your legal studies going?" The old vendor asked as he accepted the coins that Kristoph handed to him.

"They are going well. Although, I do feel it is a shame that I don't have as much time to play with mein Bruder anymore."

"Ah yes, that is a shame."

Kristoph sighed. "Agreed. I don't even have enough time to teach Klavier English. He'll definitely need it once we return to America."

Kristoph and the old vendor continued their friendly chat about life in general. After a few minutes of this, Klavier, being the six year old that he is, soon lost interest and began wandering around the area. He stopped by the water fountain a few meters away from the ice cream cart and peered into the clear, rippling water. He tilted his head as he stared at his blurry reflection curiously.

His swirling reflection suddenly turned pitch black, causing little Klavier to gasp in surprise and accidentally drop his half-devoured ice cream.

Kristoph paused in the middle of his sentence. Something was horribly wrong, and he could feel it sinking into his very being. He hastily looked around only to find that Klavier was nowhere to be found. Kristoph's keen eyes spotted the melting, half-eaten ice cream cone dropped on the ground by the water fountain, and immediately a sense of horror spread throughout his chest.

His precious little Bruder was gone.

...

Klavier had no idea how long he was falling through the empty darkness. He had already screamed his throat dry, and now he is on the verge of tears.

' _Where am I? Bruder, where are you?! Help! Help! Bruder help me! Please!_ '

As if finally responding to his internal cries for help, a voice suddenly reverberated throughout the void.

" **WrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiGGGGGGGGGGGGgggggggGGGGGHhhhHHHHHHHHHHhhhhHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!** "

Well actually it wasn't really a voice, but more of a monstrous scream that could make anyone's blood run cold, and little Klavier was no exception.

Completely and utterly scared to death, the last thing Klavier knew before losing consciousness was a blanket of cold wrapping around his body.

* * *

{ _little Klavier's Point of View, end of flashback_ }

Little Klavier blinked. ' _Oh yeah, that's right. The fountain swallowed me up, and then a loud sound scared me to sleep!...hmm, how does scaring me make me fall asleep?_ ( _cue curious head tilt_ ) _Anyway, after I woke up, everything was so cold that it made me cry! I've never been that cold in my entire life! Actually, I don't think I've seen that much snow in my whole life either. At that time I sure missed summer. Wait! But wasn't it summer before...? Then why was there snow? This is so confusing._ '

Little Klavier's eyes roamed around the room before it landed on a red-and-black suit jacket draped over a chair.

' _Oh right, then a weird man in red clothing came and started making random sounds. He took me away, and I was really scared that he was going to do those nasty things that Bruder warned me about, but he was actually really nice and kinda clumsy. I'm glad he found me, or else I might've become an ice cream by now. I'm not sure what happened next, but I think he and I became friends..._ ' Little Klavier nodded in satisfaction at his quick summary of his memories from yesterday. He jumped off the modest looking bed, and was mildly surprised to see that he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday—sandals and all.

He hesitantly peeked out the halfway opened door. Seeing no signs of the strange man, he timidly stepped out into the hallway, looked around, and began cautiously walking in a random direction down the hall. At first, little Klavier had no idea where he was going, but in the end it was his nose and his hungry stomach that successfully lead him through the kitchen door, and to a small dining table tucked away in the corner.

A small dining table with one wide-eyed Appollo frozen with a sandwich in his hands that he was just about to take a bite out of.

They stared at each other for a moment before little Klavier spoke up.

"Guten Morgen, Appollo." ( _Note: Guten Morgen = Good morning_ )

The man, Appollo, snapped out of his dazed trance. He smiled nervously, yet kindly in response.

"H-hay Klavier, houe deedd yew slaep?" ( _Translation: H-hey Klavier, how did you sleep?_ )

Little Klavier frowned and furrowed his brows. ' _There he goes making weird noises again. I can't understand him at all._ ' He shook his head. "Sorry Appollo, I dunno what you mean."

Appollo sighed in defeat at little Klavier's confused expression. He pointed to the plate containing an identical copy of the sandwich in his hands. He then gestured it to little Klavier, and took a dramatic bite out of his own sandwich. At Appollo's noticeable amount of emphasis put into chewing the bit of food, little Klavier realized that the sandwich was his breakfast.

"Danke, Appollo." Little Klavier smiled as he sat down in the chair opposite of Appollo's. He took a bite, and was pleased to find it to be fairly delicious. ( _Note: Danke = Thank you, Thanks_ )

Appollo looked at little Klavier's reaction, anxiously hoping that the sandwich he made didn't taste too bad. Klavier noticed the jittery behaviour, and he giggled softly to himself as it reminded him of a cute rabbit. Or maybe a chicken.

' _He's funny. I like him._ '

* * *

{ _Phoenix's Point of View_ }

Phoenix blinks hard once more before he finally burst out laughing.

Edgeworth glared at him through half-mooned eyes with an unamused frown set firmly on his face.

"Wright, cease your laughter and assist me. You've dealt with children before, correct? Please help get them off of me."

Indeed, right now little Phoenix, Miles, and Larry have managed to attach themselves onto either Edgeworth's hands, legs, or onto his back, and they don't seem to have any intention of letting go in the slightest.

"They just really like you, Edgeworth."

"And I'd really like to get going. Paperwork does not simply finish by themselves, thank you very much."

Larry suddenly perked up from his kuala position on Edgeworth's back. "Oh yeah! That reminds me, you never really did tell us your job. What'd you do all day?"

"Yeah, yeah! What _do_ you do? Where do you work? Tell us, tell us!" Little Phoenix chirped excitedly.

"Um, if it isn't too much trouble...can we...um, come with you?" Little Miles spoke up hesitantly, looking at Edgeworth with a hopeful gaze.

Little Phoenix and Larry tuned in. "Yeah, yeah! Can we?! Can we?! Pleeeeease?"

Edgeworth's eyebrow twitched. He inhaled deeply before sighing. "Alright, if it is truly necessary, I shall take you three to my office." He looked towards Mr. Gregory who was leaning by the doorframe. "Is that alright with you, father?"

Said attorney smiled in amusement as multiple pairs of childish wide eyes turned towards him; big and wet and silently pleading. "Why yes, of course. I trust you will take good care of them."

Edgeworth nodded in confirmation before the children cheered, and then hurried off to grab their winter jackets that they wore yesterday when they got transported to the future.

Once geared up with warm clothes, they rejoined Edgeworth again. "So, where are we off to?" Miles asked curiously as they headed for the door.

"The Prosecutor's Building."

"O-oh? So you're a prosecutor?" Miles stuttered, slightly caught off guard to hear that he became practically the opposite of what he dreamed to be.

"I'm the local chief prosecutor, actually."

"What? Really?! Incredible." Nevertheless, Miles was still amazed and impressed with his future self.

Larry decided to cut in. "Wait wait, what's a chief prosecutor?"

"A chief prosecutor is the one in charge of all the prosecutors in the local district. I assign them to cases I deem worthy of them taking." Edgeworth answered evenly as he finished buckling his trench coat.

"Whoa cool! So you're like the king of all prosecutors!"

"...in a certain sense, yes I am."

Little Phoenix shot Miles a puzzled look as they finally exited out the door. "Hey Miles, what's a prosecutor?"

Mr. Gregory hummed thoughtfully once the voices finally faded away. "So...Miles became a prosecutor..." He mused for a moment before looking up at Phoenix questioningly. "I assume it is due to that...incident he mentioned?"

Phoenix nodded and smiled a bit with a hint of sadness. "Yes, that's right."

"I am very curious as to what will happen to me..." Mr. Gregory muttered to himself quietly.

At that moment, Trucy trudged slowly down the stairs while still in her pink pyjamas. "Morning daddy..."

"What's up sweetie? Why are you looking so down?" Phoenix asked, a little worried at her lack of energy.

"Oh it's horrible, daddy! It's just horrible!"

Now Phoenix looked genuinely concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I've lost my Magic Panties!"

His eyes widened. "What?! When?!"

"Last night during my show! I was performing a new magic trick that I've come up with, and after casting a spell, I accidentally made my Magic Panties disappear! I was searching for it all night yesterday, that's why I came home late." Trucy sniffed. "What am I going to do?"

"Erm, pardon me..." Mr. Gregory hesitantly interrupted. "When you say 'magic panties'...what do they, er, look like?" By the end of that sentence, Mr. Gregory's cheeks were tinted with a red hue. Phoenix gave him a funny look.

"Well, it's blue, and silky, and it has pink hearts and diamonds, and—"

"Ah, you mean these?" Mr. Gregory, as if by magic, pulled out the piece of feminine garment in question from the back pocket of his pants.

"My panties! You've found my panties! Oh thank you thank you _thank you_ soooo much for finding my panties!" Trucy's overjoyed repetition of the word 'panties' caused Mr. Gregory's small blush to intensify. He coughed nervously in an attempt to clear away the embarrassment clouding his face.

Phoenix slowly blinked at him. "...with all due respect, Mr. Gregory...why do you have my daughter's underwear?"

Mr. Gregory embarrassedly covered his eyes with a hand, now sporting a full on blush. "I found them in the park yesterday while I was investigating. I...wasn't sure who might've dropped them, but they looked well taken care of, so I thought they must've been dropped recently."

"Well thank you so much for finding them!" Trucy exclaimed happily, energy once again fully restored. She leaped at the embarrassed attorney and embraced him joyfully; thus making said attorney go completely rigid in surprise. She released him just as quickly as her sudden impulsive hug.

"Now I've gotta go and apologize to the owner of the Wonder Bar for running off in the middle of my show. See you later!" Without missing a beat, Trucy dashed out of the agency's door. Phoenix ran up to the doorway and shouted down the hall.

"Trucy! Sweetie, wait! You're still in your PJs! Come back!"

A bashful return and a quick 5 minutes later, Trucy was out the door again.

Mr. Gregory chuckled mirthfully. "My, your daughter is simply something, Mr. Wright."

Phoenix laughed proudly. "Yep! You bet she is!"

"Out of curiosity, how old is she?"

"She recently turned 18 last year."

"Oh." Mr. Gregory blinked and raised an eyebrow. "I see...good to know…"

* * *

{ _somewhere across time..._ }

"GUILTY!" The judge banged his gavel down harshly, forever sealing the defendant's fate.

"No...! Pl-please!" The woman on the witness stand cried. "Please! I beg you to reconsider! Please! _Please_! Don't do this!"

The woman's defence attorney snarled at the prosecution. "You...you fiend! You know fully well that she couldn't have killed the victim from where she was at the time! Yet, you still have the nerve to present some faulty evidence that shouldn't even exist in the first place?!"

"Hmph, how common. A foolish, half-baked defence attorney blaming the evidence for their lack of skills. How shameful indeed."

The attorney barked, "DEMON! A demon, I say! You are a horrid _demon_!"

"Enough!" The judge bellowed out. "Take her away."

"No! NOOOO!" The woman started bawling as she was forced into cold, stiff handcuffs, and dragged out of the courtroom by the bailiffs.

As the trial finally came to an end, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth nonchalantly gathered his files, and began to leave the courtroom along with the rest of the public audience. ' _Another day, another criminal put behind bars._ ' He thought, feeling oddly satisfied.

Once he arrived at his red sports car, he was slightly taken aback to find the defence attorney from earlier waiting for him. The man glared at Edgeworth once he spotted his magenta clad physique.

"..." Edgeworth cleared his throat to break the tense silence surrounding them. "Can I help you, Mister...?" He paused, having already forgotten the defence attorney's name.

The defence attorney seems to have realized this as his lips curled into a snarl. "You better stop your tyranny, _Mr. Edgeworth_." The attorney growls, putting extra emphasis on Edgeworth's name to indicate that unlike the soulless prosecutor, he doesn't forget names. "One day... _one day_ everything you've done will come bite you in the ass." He snapped warningly.

Edgeworth narrowed his eyes in disdain. "Get out of my way, fool. I have no time for your foolish nonsense." This only provoked the defence attorney even more. Before Edgeworth could react, the enraged attorney growled and launched his fist right at the demon prosecutor's face. Edgeworth could only squeeze his eyes shut and flinch his head away to brace for the impact; however, after a few seconds, nothing made contact with his face.

Tentatively, Edgeworth opened his eyes and inhaled sharply as nothing but pure darkness greeted his sight.

' _Where am I? What is this?_ '

He looked around warily, but he couldn't see anything else besides himself and his new, black environment.

' _Am I...levitating? What buffoonery is this?_ '

Without warning, a gloomy, mournful voice suddenly echoed across the vast abyss mysteriously.

" **PrOsecUToR MiLeS edGeWortH ChoOses DeAth...** "

Edgeworth blinked in shock.

" **...EdgEWoRth...wHy did YoU LeaVe aGAin...?** "

"Who—?!" Before he could demand who was saying such absurd things about him, something pulled at his legs and dragged him further down into the chasm. The next thing he knew, his face finally—although a bit belated—made contact with something hard, resulting in a loud smack.

* * *

{ _somewhere coincidentally at the same time...but in a different time_ }

Phoenix sighed for the umpteenth time that day because today is just not his day.

Not only was he freezing like a human popsicle in the cold February weather, he also got attacked by a tiger—but was fortunate enough that his head hadn't been bitten off...yet. Then he practically got insulted by a puppet of all things, endured Moe's awful puns and jokes, and even had his badge stolen from him by a monkey; thus resulted in him chasing after the animal while screeching like a lunatic, and sadly in the end, his efforts were in vain. Worst of all, he's learned that the whip-happy lady—who literally whipped him unconscious during their first case together—was the prosecution for this bizarre case.

However, that wasn't the reason that made him sigh this time. Instead, it was Maya's unsated curiosity about Edgeworth as she subtly brought it up again when earlier he clearly told her not to.

"Maya...I don't want to talk about it."

"Aw c'mon Nick! Seriously, I don't like it when you keep me in the dark like this! What happened while I was away? Tell me already!"

"I told you, Edgeworth is gone! He's gone forever, and it's best we forget about him."

"But...but I don't get it..."

"What's not to get?! He left again—and this time for good! He's gone now—just like 16 years ago!"

"N...Nick..." Maya uttered, eyes wide with shock from Phoenix's sudden rise in volume.

Phoenix's eyes softened. "I...I'm sorry for yelling at you Maya, but it's true. He isn't here anymore, and it's best to just move on..."

Maya blinked before looking down sadly. "Okay..."

Phoenix shut his eyes and sighed again. He brought a hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose; feeling the guilt of yelling at his ever-so-faithful assistant settling down snuggly in his stomach. Once he mentally counted to ten and felt reasonably calm again, he reopened his eyes to find that Maya was gone. In fact, his whole office was gone. There was honestly nothing but total darkness stretched out in front of him. He blinked owlishly at his new surroundings.

' _What in the world...?_ ' He sighed loudly, again, and threw his arms up in defeat. "Can this day get any worse?!"

Phoenix knew he shouldn't have said that.

" **wRighT, oNe Day You'll unDerStAnd tHat ThE pRosEcuTiOn anD THe deFenCe nEed EaCh oTHer to BriNg OuT trUe JuStiCe...JuSt aS wHat I've learnt dUrinG mY AbseNCe.** "

"Huh?!" He swivelled his head around rapidly. "Who said that? Where are you?" He then paused for a moment as realization hits him. "Wait...that voice...I know that voice—wait a minute, Edgewor—?!"

He didn't get a chance to finish as gravity returned and forced him to fall. Phoenix, being someone who was most definitely afraid of heights, started screaming his head off while flailing his arms around like a madman.

After what seemed like a tortuous hour, Phoenix finally felt solid ground not-so-gently connect with his body.

* * *

{ _little Phoenix's Point of View, somewhat earlier_ }

As it turns out, Miles's adult self has a _huuuuuge_ pinkish office with very comfy couches, and the biggest Steel Samurai action figure I've never seen!

I grinned to myself and looked up at Miles's adult self in wonder as we walked back to my adult self's home/office. ' _Being a chief prosecutor is so cool! You're basically the boss of everyone, and you get to read all sorts of case files! It's kinda sad to see so many murders gathered in a single cabinet though, but it's still strangely interesting to read about them. It's weird, but I just can't help it.'_ I glanced over at my two friends just in time to see Larry saying something that made Miles instantly flustered. I smiled happily at their antics before another thought came to my mind. ' _Oh hey, but didn't Miles want to be a defence attorney? I wonder what happened to that dream...but then again, I've already changed my dream of what I want to be when I grow up several times now, so I shouldn't judge._ '

"Fascinating. I had never known that a prosecutor wasn't that much different from a defence attorney—well besides the obvious differences, of course." Miles stated in amazement, smiling contently as we walked down the sidewalk.

"Yeah, and your secretary Hannah is hot, too." Larry said dreamily. "Hey, can you hook me up with her?"

Adult Miles cleared his throat. "Larry, I'm afraid you are too young for her tastes, and I doubt she would actually accept you anyway."

"Aw man, she could've been my perfect angel...bummer."

I tried not to laugh at Larry's pouting face. What can I say? He's a silly friend.

When we arrived back at my adult self's place, Miles's dad came to greet us good-naturedly. He went to lift Miles up in his arms for a hug.

"Welcome back son, how did it go?"

"It went well, father." Miles happily replied while being carried to the living room of the agency. We followed after them. "Father, may I ask you something?"

"Yes, son? What is it?"

"When we return to our time, can you take me to see one of your trials? Please?"

From the corner of my eyes, I saw adult Miles tense up. His tightly clenched hands seemed to shake a little, too. I looked up at him curiously with concern.

"Hmm...well...I suppose it would be alright. Although I have to warn you, it could get boring." Miles's dad winked teasingly at him, causing Miles to smile and playfully roll his eyes.

"Oh how hilarious father! I know you're joking. Trials are the opposite of boring!"

"Oh? And how would you know?"

"Today, adult me showed us records of many cases that are just downright insane! There was a case about how the Steel Samurai murdered the Evil Magistrate, and another where a detective who committed murder and then tried to blame it all on a phantom thief, and there was also this case about two separate murders that happened in different places while at the same time by the same person! Upon my request, my adult self even explained the basic rules of court etiquette, and a bunch of evidence laws!" Miles spoke excitedly, probably with that bright, glittery shine that always appeared in his eyes whenever he talked about law and stuff.

Miles's dad smiled at adult Miles. "How educational. Thank you for taking care of them today."

Adult Miles casually glanced away, but I can tell he was trying hard not to blush or smile too much. "It was my pleasure. They did help me clean and organize some of those aforementioned case files."

Just then, my own adult self came into the room from the kitchen looking uneasy.

"Oh hey, welcome back." He nodded at us before redirecting his gaze at adult Miles.

"Edgeworth," he began seriously, "this could just be me, but do you feel kind of...uneasy?"

Adult Miles raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean, Wright?"

Adult me shrugged, rubbing his head while surveying around. "I feel like something's gonna happen, and it's been bothering me all afternoon. I don't think it's anything too severe like murder, but just overall something bad—something unpleasant—is about to happen. Yeesh, it's gotten me so on edge that it's becoming ridiculous."

Adult Miles looked up thoughtfully for a second before something completely unusual actually did happened.

Two men suddenly fell from the ceiling out of nowhere.

* * *

{ _Edgeworth-hater Phoenix's Point of View_ }

Right now, Phoenix honestly—for the love of God—could not breath at all due to being winded from the hard impact. It took a minute to gather his bearings, but he managed to finally crawl to his feet again.

"Oof...what...what was that all about?" He mumbled to himself absentmindedly. He glanced up only to receive the shock of his life.

There, stumbling in front of him, was Miles Edgeworth. That's right, _the_ prosecutor Miles Edgeworth—previously known as the demon prosecutor—who committed suicide about a year ago. In merely a couple of seconds, Phoenix's shock turned into blinding rage.

" _You_..." The amount of venom laced in that single word had even surprised Phoenix himself.

The disoriented demon prosecutor, who was struggling to regain balance on his feet, snapped his head up at the voice of pure hatred directed towards him. If he was startled to see his long lost childhood friend death glaring at him like he was the trashiest scum of the earth, he did amazingly well not to show it.

A movement from the other side of the room momentarily distracted Phoenix. He looked over to see a...piano?

' _Huh? What the...since when was there a piano in the office...wait, since when was the office this messy?!_ ' He thought, completely perplexed.

However, before he could ponder more on the chaotic state of his office, a flicker of another body covered in magenta attracted his attention.

He stared—no, openly gawked—at the figure that bared a breathtakingly similar resemblance to the prosecutor standing in front of him.

"Y-you..?" Phoenix sounded out hesitantly, suddenly feeling out of breath as he stared at the second Edgeworth like he had just sprouted giant white wings and a halo. His gaze shifted slightly to the side and his eyes landed on...well, himself.

" _Me_?" He exclaimed with both eyebrows raised in astonishment. He turned his head even more to the side and…

"... _WHAT_?!" Phoenix blinked and blinked again, now utterly mystified as to why there are little children that looked abnormally similar to three certain people that he knew of, and why there was a man who looked just like Edgeworth's father from the mugshot photo that he glanced at a little more than a year ago.

Wide-eyed, Phoenix returned his gaze back to the Edgeworth in front of him who wasn't wearing glasses.

"I-I thought—", his tone and his eyes suddenly hardens; bewilderment once again turning into anger, "I thought you _died_. What are you doing here?"

The demon prosecutor blinked numbly before finally regaining his composure. His eyes narrowed as he grunts scornfully. "I beg your pardon?" Childhood friend or not, Edgeworth was definitely not going to take being insulted lightly.

"'Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death', that is exactly what you wrote before disappearing to God-knows-where!"

A flash of recognition crossed Edgeworth's face, and his brow began spasming a little. This got Phoenix even more enraged as he thought that the prosecutor's peculiar reaction proved that he remembered what he did—when in truth, Edgeworth was inwardly twitching for a whole other reason.

( _the voice that he heard before in the chasm_ )

"You are a bastard, you know that?!" Phoenix said accusingly. "Go back to being dead and _stay_ dead this time!"

Edgeworth glared and snarled back. "Your imprudent claims of my death are absolutely vacuous. How dare you slander me, you incompetent buffoon?!"

Sparks could be seen flying between the young, agitated lawyers. From the other side of the room, the older Phoenix and Edgeworth glanced at each other with troubled looks. A similar thought crossed both of their minds.

' _Logic, where are you now?_ '

* * *

 **Save data file?**

Yes

No

...

 **Yes**

Progress saved.

* * *

 **Evidence: Little Phoenix's Nonexistent Backpack**

 **Winter Jacket**

:I think this is literally what I have on me right now from my time. I have a backpack too, but I can't seem to find it anywhere...

* * *

 **Profile: Little Phoenix's Angle**

 **Phoenix Wright**

:H-hi. I'm Phoenix, but most of my classmates call me Nick. I'm 9 years old, and I'm in grade 4...umm, I don't know what else to say. * ** _blushes and shyly scoots away_** *

 **Miles Edgeworth**

:He is my best-est friend in the whole world! Miles believed in me and defended me from the entire class who all thought that I was guilty of stealing his lunch money. He's a quiet bookworm and always prefers to be by himself during recess, but he's actually really kind and friendly once you get to know him. Also, according to Larry, he's fun to tease.

 **Larry Butz**

:He is also my best-est friend in the whole world! He stood up for me during the class trial and scolded the entire class for bullying me. He's a happy-go-lucky, laid-back kind of guy who very rarely gets mad, but Miles says that why Larry is so carefree is 'cause he's a slacker.

 **Phoenix Wright(adult)**

:He's AWESOME! He's so AWESOME! Everything from his cool, slick hair style to his tall height and heroic stance is just pure AWESOME! His blue suit looks so sick on him, too! And! _And_ —! Ohhhh I think I'm in love~~~! I can't wait to grow up so then I can be like him!

 **Miles Edgeworth(adult)**

:Adult Miles is so amazing, and cool, and incredible, and cuddly, and frilly! He knows so much about his job that he never even hesitated in answering any of Miles's questions regarding law and court. I'm so excited for us to grow up 'cause Miles and I look so freaking awesome! I wonder what Larry looks like when he grows up though since we haven't seen his adult self yet.

 **Phoenix Wright(Edgeworth hater)**

:This is the other adult me. He's cool too, but he really _really REALLY_ hates Miles's adult selves for some reason. It's not just like regular hate, but more like when-someone-knocks-over-your-birthday-cake-and-then-smashes-your-presents type of hate. I wonder what happened to me in my future to make me hate Miles that much...I'm kinda scared to know...

 **Miles Edgeworth(demon prosecutor)**

:Umm...you know how the other adult me hates this Miles with a passion? Well, I'm pretty sure this adult version of Miles seems to have almost just as much hate—but more towards life in general. He glares at almost anything and everything that moves like they've done him wrong or something. Larry said that this Miles probably hadn't smiled in a century, and I agree with him 'cause I think that the lines at the corner of his mouth from frowning are permanently etched onto his face.


End file.
